Arslanalp, Serkan. <br/><br/>
Helping the Poor to Help Themselves:  Debt Relief or Aid / 
Serkan Arslanalp, Peter Blair Henry. 
 - Cambridge, Mass.  National Bureau of Economic Research  2004. 
 - 1 online resource:  illustrations (black and white); 
 - NBER working paper series  no. w10230 .
 - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)  no. w10230. .
<br/><br/> January 2004. 
<br/><br/> 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. 
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