Aid as Handmaiden for the Development of Institutions: A New Comparative Perspective

Through comparative studies of aid supported infrastructure projects in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the book examines how aid could assist development processes by facilitating development of local endogenous institutions, which are both pro-growth and pro-poor. Applying comparative institutional analyses based on the concept of endogenous institutions and institutional changes, and exploring the model of 'development cooperation', the book examines aid effectiveness in a broader context of institution development in the two regions. It offers a new perspective on the institutions-development nexus, alternative to the conventional one with its emphasis of an inevitable institutional convergence to a monolithic universal model. It argues that socially and politically sustainable development involves institutional innovation by developing endogenous institutions, firmly embedded in a local social-political system. The book offers policy lessons from the East Asian experiences with aid-supported infrastructure projects to governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the international aid community, including emerging development partners.