TY  - JOUR
AU  - Arslanalp,Serkan
AU  - Henry,Peter Blair
TI  - Helping the Poor to Help Themselves: Debt Relief or Aid
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10230
PY  - 2004
Y2  - January 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10230
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10230.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Serkan Arslanalp

Peter Blair Henry
Stern School of Business
New York University
44 West 4th Street, 11-58
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212/998-0909
E-Mail: pbhenry@stern.nyu.edu
AB  - Debt relief is unlikely to stimulate investment and growth in the world's highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs). This is because the HIPCs do not suffer from debt overhang. The principal obstacle to investment and growth in the world's poorest countries is a lack of basic economic institutions that provide the foundation for profitable economic activity. If the goal is to help poor countries build the institutions that best suit their development needs, then the energy and resources currently devoted to the HIPC initiative could be more effectively employed as direct foreign aid.
ER  -