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Is the relationship between aid and economic growth nonlinear?

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  • Kourtellos, Andros
  • Tan, Chih Ming
  • Zhang, Xiaobo

Abstract

"There have been intensive debates on the role of aid in promoting economic development in developing countries by using cross-country analyses. Cross-country regression assuming linear relationship between aid and growth and without taking into heterogeneity of countries would produce biased estimates. To correct this, in this paper we investigate the relationship between foreign aid and growth using recently developed sample splitting methods that allow us to simultaneously uncover evidence for the existence of heterogeneity and nonlinearity. We also address model uncertainty in the context of these methods. We find some evidence that aid may have heterogeneous effects on growth across two growth regimes defined by ethnolinguistic fractionalization. However, when we account for model uncertainty, we find no evidence to suggest that the relationship between aid and growth is nonlinear. In fact, our results suggest that the partial effect of aid on growth is likely to be weakly negative. In this sense, our findings suggest that aid is potentially counterproductive to growth with outcomes not meeting the expectations of donors... The methodology developed in this paper can be used to identify typologies on other outcome variables, such as those included in the Millennium Development Goals." from Authors' Abstract

Suggested Citation

  • Kourtellos, Andros & Tan, Chih Ming & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2007. "Is the relationship between aid and economic growth nonlinear?," IFPRI discussion papers 694, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:694
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    3. Renkow, Mitch, 2010. "Impacts of IFPRI's "priorities for pro-poor public investment" global research program:," Impact assessments 31, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Thomas Ziesemer, 2011. "Growth with endogenous migration hump and the multiple, dynamically interacting effects of aid in poor developing countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(30), pages 4865-4878.
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    6. Sin-Yu Ho, 2018. "Analysing the sources of growth in an emerging market economy: the Thailand experience," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(4), pages 340-359.
    7. Cui, Xiaoyong & Gong, Liutang, 2008. "Foreign aid, domestic capital accumulation, and foreign borrowing," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1269-1284, September.
    8. Pedrosa-Garcia, Jose Antonio, 2017. "Trends and Features of Research on Foreign Aid: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 82134, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Lessmann, Christian & Markwardt, Gunther, 2012. "Aid, Growth and Devolution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1723-1749.
    10. Andros Kourtellos & Ioanna Stylianou & Chih Tan, 2015. "Robust multiple regimes in growth volatility," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 461-491, February.
    11. Cohen-Cole, Ethan B. & Durlauf, Steven N. & Rondina, Giacomo, 2012. "Nonlinearities in growth: From evidence to policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 42-58.
    12. Djedje Hermann Yohou & Michaël Goujon & Bertrand Laporte & Samuel Guérineau, 2016. "Is Aid Unfriendly to Tax? African Evidence of Heterogeneous Direct and Indirect Effects," Working Papers halshs-01321620, HAL.
    13. Muhammad Javid & Abdul Qayyum, 2011. "Foreign Aid and Growth Nexus in Pakistan: The Role of Macroeconomic Policies," PIDE-Working Papers 2011:72, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    14. Harb, Nermeen & Hall, Stephen G., 2019. "Does foreign aid play a role in the maintenance of economic growth? A non-linear analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 192-204.
    15. 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.
    16. Sarantis Kalyvitis & Thanasis Stengos & Irene Vlachaki, 2012. "Are Aid Flows Excessive or Insufficient? Estimating the Growth Impact of Aid in Threshold Regressions," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(3), pages 298-315, July.
    17. David Coyne & Chih-ming Tan, 2012. "Do political institutions yield multiple growth regimes?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1442-1454.
    18. Alessandra Pelloni & Thanasis Stengos & Ilaria Tedesco, 2018. "Aid to agriculture, trade and take-off," Working Paper series 18-04, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    19. Emara, Noha & Plotkin, David & Stein, Alyssa, 2013. "Foreign aid and growth in Egypt: The role of economic policy," MPRA Paper 68687, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Lessmann, Christian & Markwardt, Gunther, 2009. "Aid, growth and decentralization," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 09/09, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.

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    Keywords

    Economic development; Cross-country studies; Foreign aid; Public investment; Nonlinearity; Typology;
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