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This paper examines a new trend in Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) policy that emerged at the end of the Cold War. In 1992, the Japanese government adopted the "Official Development Assistance Charter," which obliged Japan to use its foreign aid to promote human rights, democracy, and freedom. Since the beginning of the 1990s, there have been cases when Japan imposed "human rights conditionalities" by increasing the amount of foreign aid to the recipient countries with good human rights records and reducing economic assistance to the countries with poor human rights practices. However, there remain doubts whether Japan is truly committed to use its aid power as leverage to ensure that democracy and human rights are respected by the governments of its aid recipients. This paper uses panel data analysis to examine whether the condition of human rights in aid-recipient countries has become one of the factors that influence Japan's ODA allocation. The findings reveal the lack of evidence to prove that the human rights condition in aid-recipient countries has influenced the allocation of Japanese aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances have been a great support to Pacific island countries (PICs). Aside from providing additions to domestic savings and, hence, real resources, they have been one of the major sources of foreign exchange earnings. In the context of falling exports and limited options to diversify their exports, inward remittances have assumed greater importance. This paper examines the nexus between growth and remittances in Samoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On December 17, 2004, El Salvador became the first of six signatory countries to ratify the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and on March 1, 2006, it became the first to implement the agreement. However, even staunch supporters of trade agreements would likely agree that DR-CAFTA provides questionable advantages for the five Latin American signatories, as they already received most of the DR-CAFTA-related trade-benefits through the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) with fewer conditions. Meanwhile, the potential benefits are questionable, at best. Thus, begs the question, why would any of the five Latin American economies sign on to such an agreement? This paper seeks to explain the motives of just one of these signatories: El Salvador. Understanding El Salvador's participation in CAFTA-DR is critical not only because it's government was the most vociferous supporter of the agreement but because DR-CAFTA demonstrates the consolidation of the country's previously nascent Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]