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Viviane Chevallier

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If there is so much aid in developing countries, why poverty is increasing in these regions and the industrialized world?

I'm doing a question for my project. Not only that poverty is increasing in the developing world for the worse, it is increasing in the industrialized world, especially the United States.

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  • Varun Kejriwal

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    Dec 28 2012: Here is an interesting article that categorizes foreign aid, to an extent, and compiles research on the effects of each type:

    http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjir/pdf/Aid_11.1.pdf

    One of the main conclusions is that aid to an infrastructure-poor country is more likely to exacerbate poverty, whereas aid to an infrastructure-rich country has a better chance of alleviating it.

    Personally, I think that these further characterizations of aid are necessary to understand this question, since the word "aid" itself doesn't really mean anything except an action with the intent to help. A more open-minded, comparative, and iterative approach to the consequences of aid seems like it would facilitate precise and effective aid. Esther Duflo talks about this in her TED Talk as well:

    http://blog.ted.com/2010/05/03/social_experime/

    Aside from the ethical questions surrounding aid-based experimentation, thinking about aid and implementing it more dynamically would be like finding and going to a physician who specializes in your disease versus going to a random physician and expecting him/her make you feel better.

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