Which correlation studies are you talking about? We would actually need quite some evidence to suggest that aid is net harmful, or very inefficient. I haven’t seen anything to suggest this. Even if it has net zero financial effect, that doesn’t mean it isn’t amazingly efficient at health effects etc. I was very unimpressed with the standard of those Spiegel pieces, especially the interview.
I certainly think we need much more focus on efficiency of aid (as you know I’m spending much of my time starting an organization to see to this) and also more randomized trials to assess the impact of various interventions. However, the strongest negative claim at the moment that we can really make is that it is quite possible aid has had net negative effect, but we would need to look into it much more. Going any further strikes me as overconfident.
Robin:
Which correlation studies are you talking about? We would actually need quite some evidence to suggest that aid is net harmful, or very inefficient. I haven’t seen anything to suggest this. Even if it has net zero financial effect, that doesn’t mean it isn’t amazingly efficient at health effects etc. I was very unimpressed with the standard of those Spiegel pieces, especially the interview.
I certainly think we need much more focus on efficiency of aid (as you know I’m spending much of my time starting an organization to see to this) and also more randomized trials to assess the impact of various interventions. However, the strongest negative claim at the moment that we can really make is that it is quite possible aid has had net negative effect, but we would need to look into it much more. Going any further strikes me as overconfident.