Why is the 'Dutch Disease' Always a Disease? The Macroeconomic Consequences of Scaling up ODA, IPC Working Paper No. 10

Why do many economists believe that in developing countries a large surge of capital inflows, such as Official Development Assistance (ODA), will lead to a ‘Dutch Disease’, and not development? What, exactly, is a ‘Dutch Disease’ and why is it considered to be invariably detrimental to development?1 This brief paper attempts to address these issues.