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Foreign Aid Transaction Costs: What are they and when are they minimised?

Paul, Elisabeth; Vandeninden, Frieda

2012 • In Development Policy Review, 30 (3)

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/129570

DOI
10.1111/j.1467-7679.2012.00577.x

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Keywords :

Transaction costs; Aid effectiveness; Aid modalities

Abstract :

[en] 'Transaction costs' are commonly referred to in the recent literature on aid effectiveness. Aid transaction costs, however, have been neither consistently defined nor measured. This article defines aid transaction costs as all the economic costs associated with aid management that add no value to aid delivery. This enables the 'net' transaction costs that should be minimised to be identified. An analytical framework is then developed for assessing these costs. This allows the effectiveness of different aid modalities to be compared, according to the characteristics of the aid transaction. The article shows that the choice of aid modality should depend on these characteristics and, therefore, that the minimisation of transaction costs should not be an end in itself.

Disciplines :

International economics

Author, co-author :

Paul, Elisabeth ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Institut des sciences humaines et sociales > Sociologie du développement

Vandeninden, Frieda ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC-Ecole de gestion : UER > Economie publique appliquée

Language :

English

Title :

Foreign Aid Transaction Costs: What are they and when are they minimised?

Publication date :

2012

Journal title :

Development Policy Review

ISSN :

0950-6764

eISSN :

1467-7679

Publisher :

Blackwell Publishing

Volume :

30

Issue :

3

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Name of the research project :

GRAP-PA Santé

Available on ORBi :

since 28 August 2012

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Scopus citations^®

13

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

13

OpenCitations

11

Bibliography

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