http://wber.oxfordjournals.org The World Bank Economic Review - RSS feed of articles 1564-698X The World Bank Economic Review 0258-6770 http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/lhn003v1?rss=1 Most of the aid effectiveness literature has focused on the potential growth effects of aggregate aid, with inconclusive results. Considering that donors have repeatedly stressed the multidimensionality of their objectives, a more disaggregated view on aid effectiveness is warranted. The impact of aid on education is analyzed empirically for almost 100 countries over 1970–2004. The effectiveness of sector-specific aid is assessed within the framework of social production functions. The Millennium Development Goals related to education, particularly the goal of achieving universal primary school enrollment, are considered as outcome variables. The analysis suggests that higher per capita aid for education significantly increases primary school enrollment, while increased domestic government spending on education does not. This result is robust to the method of estimation, the use of instruments to control for the endogeneity of aid, and the set of control variables included in the estimations.

]]> 2008-04-11 info:doi/10.1093/wber/lhn003 The World Bank 2008-04-11 Article http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/lhm013v1?rss=1 The ambient permit system proposed in the literature for cost-effective pollution reduction is difficult to implement and may result in lower net benefits than using another instrument. The article develops a model for comparing the environmental net benefits of three policy instruments for Santiago, Chile, when the policy problem is to meet a given ambient quality standard. Two market-based instruments—the ambient permit system and a simpler emission permit system—are examined along with an emission standard, a command and control instrument usually favored by regulators. Both emission permit system and emission standard are costlier than the ambient permit system, sometimes in large part because they improve ambient emission concentrations beyond the required target in much of the city, but the ambient permit system requires a lower degree of control to comply with the standard. The somewhat costlier emission permit system and emission standard provide much higher net benefits than the ambient permit system when the health benefits of their "excessive" air quality improvements are taken into account. These benefits are different from the fact that an ambient permit system is administratively costlier to implement.

]]> 2007-08-31 info:doi/10.1093/wber/lhm013 The World Bank 2007-08-31 Article