Missing data is a major problem in empirical development economics, as it may entail efficiency losses as well as biased results. This is an issue within the literature that investigates the effect of foreign aid on welfare. Using multiple imputation techniques, we address these problems and find lower aid effectiveness than previous studies suggest. In addition, imputation allows for compariso...

Routine hearing screening can identify patients who are motivated to seek out and adhere to treatment, but little information exists on the cost-effectiveness of hearing screening in a general population of older veterans. We compared the cost-effectiveness of three screening strategies (tone-emitting otoscope, hearing handicap questionnaire, and both together) against no screening (control gro...

There has been significant amount of aid inflows to developing countries including Ghana, but these have been very volatile. Aid flows have been associated with low domestic resource mobilization and have reduced Ghana to a country heavily dependent on aid. The amount of official development assistance (ODA) inflows has fallen in recent years and has become unpredictable. It is general knowledg...

As aid diminishes in importance, donors need a capacity that enables governments to improve the quality of their public spending. In this study I suggest three such organizational innovations: independent ratings of spending systems, Independent Public Service Agencies, and Sovereign Development Funds. These constitute a new donor instrument of influencing the modalities of public spending, alo...

This paper opens by expressing disappointment in the disparities between published estimations of the effectiveness of foreign aid to developing countries and effectiveness data which arise from the application of complex econometric methods. The new dilemmas for aid policy include the fact that aid increasingly devoted to human development at the expense of productive activity is unlikely to ...

This paper addresses the issue of the impact of aid supply on aid effectiveness. We proceed in two steps. First, we review research works that deal with the problem of governance in donor-recipient relationships and are susceptible of highlighting effects of aggregate aid availability. Second, we provide a conceptual framework that explicitly incorporates a trade-off between considerations of n...

Demand for hearing aid services in the Veterans Health Administration increased over 300% from 1996 to 2005, challenging the delivery of timely, high-quality care. Using group visits may help meet these needs, but whether this approach would still provide high-quality rehabilitation is unclear. This study determined whether group visits worsen hearing aid outcomes. It included a retrospective o...

Working Paper 6 March 2015 Rajlakshmi De and Charles Becker Understanding the role of foreign aid in poverty alleviation is one of the central inquiries of development economics. To augment past cross-country studies, this paper offers a first step toward addressing the absence of disaggregated estimates of the allocation and impact of foreign aid. Newly geocoded aid project data from Malawi ar...