An unlikely path to aid: paying to set up think tanks

When we think of foreign aid, we tend to think of something rudimentary being delivered to a village: a well, some mosquito nets, a school building. Or of something big being delivered to a government: a harbour, a generating station, a prison.

And we tend to be disappointed with foreign-aid spending these days, because after years of investments on wells and mosquito nets and school buildings, we still have famines and disease outbreaks and illiteracy in some countries.