Impact of support measures to the least developed countries. Conclusions of "Out of the trap".

"Out of the trap" assesses the impact of the least developed countries category membership on the development of these countries. It is a companion volume of "Caught in a trap", which assessed the rationale of the category and the way member countries are identified. Assessing the impact of LDC status is difficult because there is no adequate control group. Countries benefitting from support measures linked to LDC status are also countries suffering most from structural handicaps. And not only has the perimeter of the category changed over time, so have the strength and coverage of the support measures, and their effect may have been progressive, or even delayed.