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The Effects of Foreign Aid in Sub-Saharan Africa

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  • Robert Gillanders

Abstract

This paper contributes to the aid effectiveness debate by applying a vector autoregression model to a panel of Sub-Saharan African countries. This method avoids the need for instrumental variables and allows one to analyse the impact of foreign aid on human development and on economic development simultaneously. The full sample results indicate a small increase in economic growth following a fairly substantial aid shock. The size of the effect puts the result somewhere between the arguments of aid optimists and those of aid pessimists. Economic growth is found to respond more to aid shocks in groups defined by better economic policies, poor institutions and high aid dependence. Human development, for which I use the growth rate of life expectancy as a proxy, responds positively to aid shocks in democracies and in good institutional environments.

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  • Robert Gillanders, 2011. "The Effects of Foreign Aid in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 201116, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201116
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/6374
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jones, Yakama Manty, 2013. "Testing the foreign aid-led growth hypothesis in West Africa," MPRA Paper 50361, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. 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.
    3. Lof, Matthijs & Mekasha, Tseday Jemaneh & Tarp, Finn, 2015. "Aid and Income: Another Time-series Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 19-30.
    4. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna, 2012. "How Aid Supply Responds to Economic Crises: A Panel VAR Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series 025, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Yakama Manty Jones, 2013. "Testing the Foreign Aid-led Growth Hypothesis in West Africa," Management Working Papers 3, Birkbeck Department of Management, revised Apr 2013.
    6. Lof, Matthijs & Mekasha, Tseday Jemaneh & Tarp, Finn, 2015. "Aid and Income: Another Time-series Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 19-30.
    7. Shaomeng Jia & Claudia R. Williamson, 2019. "Aid, Policies, And Growth: Why So Much Confusion?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 577-599, October.
    8. Herzer, Dierk & Nowak-Lehmann, Felicitas & Dreher, Axel & Klasen, Stephan & Martinez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, 2015. "Comment on Lof, Mekasha, and Tarp (2014)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 389-396.
    9. Hillary Chijindu Ezeaku & Ifeoma C. Nwakoby & Obiamaka P. Egbo & Josaphat U. J. Onwumere, 2019. "On the Dynamic Effect of Bilateral Concessional Debts on Living Standards in Sub-Saharan Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.
    10. Boateng, Elliot & Agbola, Frank W. & Mahmood, Amir, 2021. "Foreign aid volatility and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does institutional quality matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 111-127.
    11. Santos Bila & Mduduzi Biyase & Matias Farahane & Thomas Udimal, 2023. "Foreign Aid And Economic Growth In Sub-Saharan African Countries," Economics Working Papers edwrg-03-2023, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, revised 2023.
    12. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Civelli, Andrea & Horowitz, Andrew & Teixeira, Arilton, 2018. "Foreign aid and growth: A Sp P-VAR analysis using satellite sub-national data for Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 50-67.
    14. Lof, Matthijs & Mekasha, Tseday Jemaneh & Tarp, Finn, 2015. "Rejoinder to Herzer, Nowak-Lehmann, Dreher, Klasen, and Martinez-Zarzoso (2014)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 397-399.

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    Keywords

    Foreign aid; Official Development Assistance (ODA); Economic development; Human development;
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