Publication (PDF format) - Institut économique de Montréal

,,IFD taxes are in many waysthe epitome of inefficientdevelopment aid. ,,The current UN development strategy magnifiesthe errors of the past. “[O]ur goal,” claims thesecretary general of the organization, “must be asingle, coherent global agenda,” 167 which he derivesfrom the Millennium Development Goals, fromwhich IFD sprang. Such a coherent global agendaassumes unanimity among citizens plus an idealstate. Ricardo Hausmann, director of the Centerfor International Development at Harvard University,writes:The MDG framework is a top-down designakin to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It shouldbe superseded by a self-organizing alternativeakin to Wikipedia. … This is not unlike thedebate between central planning and selforganizationin the economy. 168IFD taxes must be considered in view ofwhat we know about the poor performance ofdevelopment aid. They are not only subject to thesame problems, but are in many ways the epitomeof inefficient development aid. The money theyraise is fungible, so we have no way of knowing ifWhy New International Taxes for Development Are Inefficientthey actually serve to increase the total amount ofdevelopment aid—assuming that aid is useful. Andthey do not address the crucial issue of economicfreedom in recipient countries.167. UN (2013).168. Hausmann (2013).40Montreal Economic Institute