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Aid, agriculture and poverty in developing countries

Author

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  • Paul Mosley

    (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield)

  • Abrar Suleiman

    (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield)

Abstract

We make two contributions to the debate on aid-effectiveness, illustrating that for impact on poverty what matters is not just the level but also the composition and stability of aid. One specific implication of this for aid policy is that aid most effectively reduces poverty if it supports public (and other) expenditures which are supportive of agricultural development – these, our regression analysis confirms, are not only direct expenditure on agriculture, but also education and infrastructure, and military expenditure has a negative impact. Three factors appear to be particularly conducive to the development of stable pro-poor expenditure patterms (and in particular pro-agriculture expenditure patterns). These are expenditure strategies which protect the poor against risk, the development of stable relations between governments and aid donors, and long-term political commitment to pro-poor strategies by government. The argument is pursued partly by panel-data econometric analysis of developing countries as a whole, and partly by case studies of sustained and non-sustained green revolutions in heavily aid-dependent countries in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Mosley & Abrar Suleiman, 2005. "Aid, agriculture and poverty in developing countries," Working Papers 2005010, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2005.
    • Handle: RePEc:shf:wpaper:2005010
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