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Does the World Bank have any impact on human development of the poorest countries? Some preliminary evidence from Africa

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  • Sumon Kumar Bhaumik

Abstract

In an attempt to better understand the impact of the World Bank on human development in poor countries, we use cross-country data on African countries, for the 1990-2002 period, to examine this relationship. The coefficient estimates of our parsimonious fixed-effects models indicate that while loans and grants of the Bank have had a positive impact on some relatively short-term indicators of health and education in an average African country, there is little evidence to suggest that such loans and grants have helped these countries to consolidate on the short-term gains.

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  • Sumon Kumar Bhaumik, 2005. "Does the World Bank have any impact on human development of the poorest countries? Some preliminary evidence from Africa," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp784, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2005-784
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Burhop, Carsten, 2005. "Foreign assistance and economic development: a re-evaluation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 57-61, January.
    2. Kilby, Christopher, 2000. "Supervision and performance: the case of World Bank projects," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 233-259, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Dierk Herzer, 2019. "The long-run effect of aid on health: evidence from panel cointegration analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1319-1338, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Development; Health; Education; World Bank; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • P45 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - International Linkages

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