IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/95433.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Aid and Human Development: Is There A Role for Good Policy Environment?

Author

Listed:
  • Kar, Ashim Kumar

Abstract

This paper examines the role that official development assistance (ODA) plays in achieving human development outcomes in the presence of good policy environments. Using data from 96 low and middle-income countries for the period 1996-2014, the paper develops and tests static and dynamic panel data models controlling for potential endogeneity of aid and human development. In exploring the impacts of aid, indicators of economic, political and institutional governance were taken into account. With moderate differences across countries, results suggest that foreign aid is positively and significantly linked with, and hence facilitates, human development indicators. Also, the governance indicators influence human development. So, providing more aid is justified if better economic, political and institutional governance in the recipient countries can be ensured.

Suggested Citation

  • Kar, Ashim Kumar, 2016. "Aid and Human Development: Is There A Role for Good Policy Environment?," MPRA Paper 95433, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:95433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/95433/1/MPRA_paper_95433.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stéphane Pallage & Michel A. Robe, 2001. "Foreign Aid and the Business Cycle," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 641-672, November.
    2. Gopalan, Sasidaran & Rajan, Ramkishen S., 2016. "Has Foreign Aid Been Effective in the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector? Evidence from Panel Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 84-104.
    3. Fosu, Augustin Kwasi, 2017. "Growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in developing countries: Recent global evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 306-336.
    4. Riddell, Abby & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2016. "The effectiveness of foreign aid to education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 23-36.
    5. Lynda Pickbourn & Léonce Ndikumana, 2013. "Impact of Sectoral Allocation of Foreign Aid on Gender Equity and Human Development," Published Studies unu_pickbourn_ndikumana, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    6. P. Guillaumont & L. Chauvet, 2001. "Aid and Performance: A Reassessment," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), pages 66-92.
    7. Boriana Yontcheva & Mrs. Nadia Masud, 2005. "Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Nongovernmental and Bilateral Aid," IMF Working Papers 2005/100, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Arndt, Channing & Jones, Sam & Tarp, Finn, 2015. "Assessing Foreign Aid’s Long-Run Contribution to Growth and Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 6-18.
    9. Okada, Keisuke & Samreth, Sovannroeun, 2012. "The effect of foreign aid on corruption: A quantile regression approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 240-243.
    10. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    11. Minoiu, Camelia & Reddy, Sanjay G., 2010. "Development aid and economic growth: A positive long-run relation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 27-39, February.
    12. Henrik Hansen & Finn Tarp, 2000. "Aid effectiveness disputed," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 375-398, April.
    13. Tony Addison & George Mavrotas & Mark McGillivray, 2005. "Development assistance and development finance: evidence and global policy agendas," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 819-836.
    14. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014, December.
    15. McGillivray, Mark, 2000. "Aid and Public Sector Behavior in Developing Countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 156-163, June.
    16. Henrik Hansen & Derek Headey, 2010. "The Short-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Foreign Aid to Small States: An Agnostic Time Series Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 877-896.
    17. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2007. "Unintended Consequences: Does Aid Promote Arms Races?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(1), pages 1-27, February.
    18. Stephen Howes, 2011. "An overview of aid effectiveness, determinants and strategies," Development Policy Centre Discussion Papers 1101, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    19. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    20. Kosack, Stephen, 2003. "Effective Aid: How Democracy Allows Development Aid to Improve the Quality of Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-22, January.
    21. Jean-Paul Azam & Véronique Thelen, 2008. "The roles of foreign aid and education in the war on terror," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 375-397, June.
    22. Asongu Simplice, 2014. "Fighting African corruption when existing corruption-control levels matter in a dynamic cultural setting," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 906-922, October.
    23. Boone, Peter, 1996. "Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 289-329, February.
    24. Collier, Paul & Dollar, David, 2002. "Aid allocation and poverty reduction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1475-1500, September.
    25. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2016. "Foreign aid and governance in Africa," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 69-88, January.
    26. David Fielding & Mark McGillivray & Sebastian Torres, 2006. "A Wider Approach to Aid Effectiveness: Correlated Impacts on Health, Wealth, Fertility and Education," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-23, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    27. Ndikumana, Léonce & Pickbourn, Lynda, 2013. "Impact of Sectoral Allocation of Foreign Aid on Gender equity and Human Development," WIDER Working Paper Series 066, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    28. Claudia R. Williamson, 2008. "Foreign Aid and Human Development: The Impact of Foreign Aid to the Health Sector," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 188-207, July.
    29. William Easterly, 2003. "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 23-48, Summer.
    30. Johnson P. Asiama & Peter Quartey, 2009. "Foreign Aid and the Human Development Indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 25(1), pages 57-83, January.
    31. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    32. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    33. Editors, 2016. "16 and all that," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 16(1), pages 3-4, March.
    34. Fosu, Augustin Kwasi, 2017. "Growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in developing countries: Recent global evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 306-336.
    35. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    36. Lynda Pickbourn & Léonce Ndikumana, 2013. "Impact of Sectoral Allocation of Foreign Aid on Gender equity and Human Development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-066, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    37. Hudson, John, 2015. "Consequences of Aid Volatility for Macroeconomic Management and Aid Effectiveness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 62-74.
    38. Mohammadou Nourou, 2014. "Foreign Aid And Development: Looking Beyond The Growth Effect," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 99-115, December.
    39. Santanu Chatterjee & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2005. "Financing Public Investment through Foreign Aid: Consequences for Economic Growth and Welfare," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 20-44, February.
    40. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    41. Mark McGillivray & Farhad Noorbakhsh, "undated". "Aid, Conflict and Human Development," Working Papers 2007_03, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    42. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    43. Pallage, Stephane & Robe, Michel A, 2001. "Foreign Aid and the Business Cycle," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 641-672, November.
    44. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    45. Sebastian Edwards, 2014. "Economic Development and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid: A Historical Perspective," NBER Working Papers 20685, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gopalan, Sasidaran & Rajan, Ramkishen S., 2016. "Has Foreign Aid Been Effective in the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector? Evidence from Panel Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 84-104.
    2. Kamguia, Brice & Tadadjeu, Sosson & Miamo, Clovis & Njangang, Henri, 2022. "Does foreign aid impede economic complexity in developing countries?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 71-88.
    3. Edmore Mahembe & Nicholas Mbaya Odhiambo, 2021. "Does foreign aid reduce poverty? A dynamic panel data analysis for sub-Saharan African countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(4), pages 875-893, December.
    4. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    5. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    6. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Dimitrios Varvarigos, 2007. "The Allocation of volatile aid and economic growth: Evidence and a suggestive theory," Discussion Paper Series 2007_07, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Mar 2007.
    7. Yousuf, Ahmed Sadek, 2012. "Assessing Impact of Health Oriented Aid on Infant Mortality Rates," EconStor Preprints 67391, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    8. Simplice Asongu, 2014. "The Questionable Economics of Development Assistance in Africa: Hot-Fresh Evidence, 1996–2010," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 455-480, December.
    9. Minoiu, Camelia & Reddy, Sanjay G., 2010. "Development aid and economic growth: A positive long-run relation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 27-39, February.
    10. Ouyang, Yusi & Shimeles, Abebe & Thorbecke, Erik, 2019. "Revisiting cross-country poverty convergence in the developing world with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 13-28.
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2016. "Foreign aid and governance in Africa," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 69-88, January.
    12. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Dimitrios Varvarigos, 2005. "The Impact of Foreign Aid on Economic Growth: Volatility of Disbursements and Distribution of Receipts," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0533, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    13. Thomas Ziesemer, 2016. "The Impact of Development Aid on Education and Health: Survey and New Evidence for Low‐income Countries from Dynamic Models," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(8), pages 1358-1380, November.
    14. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Lahiri, Sajal & Younas, Javed, 2015. "Financing growth through foreign aid and private foreign loans: Nonlinearities and complementarities," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 75-96.
    15. Ziyoda Asatullaeva & Reza Fathollah Zadeh Aghdam & Nisar Ahmad & Laylo Tashpulatova, 2021. "The impact of foreign aid on economic development: A systematic literature review and content analysis of the top 50 most influential papers," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 717-751, May.
    16. Bah, El-hadj M. & Ward, Jeremy, 2011. "Effectiveness of foreign aid in Small Island Developing States," MPRA Paper 32062, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Yousuf, Ahmed Sadek, 2012. "Impact of Health Aid on Infant Mortality Rate," MPRA Paper 42945, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Oct 2012.
    18. K C Neanidis & D Varvarigos, 2005. "The Impact of Foreign Aid on Economic Growth: Volatility of Disbursements and Distribution of Receipts," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 56, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu, Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Taxation, foreign aid and political governance in Africa," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 18(2), pages 217-249, December.
    20. Patrick GUILLAUMONT, 2009. "Aid effectiveness for poverty reduction: macroeconomic overview and emerging issues," Working Papers P05, FERDI.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    official development assistance (ODA); human development; governance; panel data; GMM estimation; dynamic panel data (DPD) model.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:95433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.