IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v126y2023ics0264999323002468.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign aid, debt interest repayments and Dutch disease effects in a real exchange rate model for African countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmad, Ahmad Hassan
  • Pentecost, Eric J.
  • Stack, Marie M.

Abstract

The international competitiveness of developing countries is integral to their economic development; hence understanding the main determinants of the real exchange rate is important. The empirical literature supports the Dutch disease hypothesis that foreign aid inflows significantly contribute to a real appreciation of African currencies, but these studies do not account for the downward pressure on the exchange rate from foreign currency payments. Using a panel of sub-Saharan African countries from 1980 to 2017, we test the hypothesis that the real exchange rate appreciation from aid inflows is moderated by interest repayments on external debt. Our findings suggest that one-third of the Dutch disease effect of aid inflows on the real exchange rate is offset by external debt interest repayments. These findings are important in showing that countries with external debt servicing obligations can mitigate the Dutch disease effect of aid inflows on competitiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmad, Ahmad Hassan & Pentecost, Eric J. & Stack, Marie M., 2023. "Foreign aid, debt interest repayments and Dutch disease effects in a real exchange rate model for African countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:126:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323002468
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999323002468
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106434?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Takagi, Yasuoki, 1981. "Aid and Debt Problems in Less-Developed Countries," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 323-337, July.
    2. Christopher S. Adam & David L. Bevan, 2006. "Aid and the Supply Side: Public Investment, Export Performance, and Dutch Disease in Low-Income Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(2), pages 261-290.
    3. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    4. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    5. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    6. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    7. Rajan, Raghuram G. & Subramanian, Arvind, 2011. "Aid, Dutch disease, and manufacturing growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 106-118, January.
    8. Danny Cassimon & Bjorn van Campenhout, 2007. "Aid Effectiveness, Debt Relief and Public Finance Response: Evidence from a Panel of HIPCs," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2007-59, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    10. David Fielding & Fred Gibson, 2013. "Aid and Dutch Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 22(1), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Sidney S. Alexander, 1952. "Effects of a Devaluation on a Trade Balance," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(2), pages 263-278, April.
    12. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "No Single Currency Regime is Right for All Countries or At All Times," NBER Working Papers 7338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Bjerg, Christina & Bjørnskov, Christian & Holm, Anne, 2011. "Growth, debt burdens and alleviating effects of foreign aid in least developed countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 143-153, March.
    14. Hristos Doucouliagos & Martin Paldam, 2009. "The Aid Effectiveness Literature: The Sad Results Of 40 Years Of Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 433-461, July.
    15. Mumtaz Hussain & Andrew Berg & Shekhar Aiyar, 2009. "The Macroeconomic Management of Increased Aid: Policy Lessons from Recent Experience," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 491-509, August.
    16. Isabell Adenauer & Laurence Vagassky, 1998. "Aid and the real exchange rate: Dutch disease effects in African countries," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 33(4), pages 177-185, July.
    17. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    18. Bazoumana Ouattara & Eric Strobl, 2008. "Foreign Aid Inflows And The Real Exchange Rate In The Cfa Franc Zone," Economie Internationale, CEPII research center, issue 116, pages 37-52.
    19. Ahmad, A.H. & Harvey, David I. & Pentecost, Eric J., 2011. "Exchange rate regime verification: An alternative method of testing for regime changes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 96-98, October.
    20. repec:bla:rdevec:v:13:y:2009:i:s1:p:491-509 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Frees, Edward W., 1995. "Assessing cross-sectional correlation in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 393-414, October.
    22. Danny Cassimon & Bjorn Van Campenhout, 2007. "Aid Effectiveness, Debt Relief and Public Finance Response: Evidence from a Panel of HIPC Countries," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 143(4), pages 742-763, December.
    23. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Department of Economics Working Papers 2000-02, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    24. Corden, W Max & Neary, J Peter, 1982. "Booming Sector and De-Industrialisation in a Small Open Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 825-848, December.
    25. Elbadawi, Ibrahim A, 1999. "External Aid: Help or Hindrance to Export Orientation in Africa?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 8(4), pages 578-616, December.
    26. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    27. Rafael E. De Hoyos & Vasilis Sarafidis, 2006. "Testing for cross-sectional dependence in panel-data models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 6(4), pages 482-496, December.
    28. Emmanuel K. K. Lartey & Federico S. Mandelman & Pablo A. Acosta, 2012. "Remittances, Exchange Rate Regimes and the Dutch Disease: A Panel Data Analysis," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 377-395, May.
    29. Zameelah Khan Jaffur & Boopen Seetanah & Noor-Ul-Hacq Sookia, 2020. "A cross-country analysis of the determinants of the real effective exchange rate in fifteen Sub-Saharan African countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1686-1697.
    30. Nyoni, Timothy S., 1998. "Foreign Aid and Economic Performance in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 1235-1240, July.
    31. Joong Shik Kang & Alessandro Prati & Alessandro Rebucci, 2012. "Aid, Exports, and Growth: a Time-Series Perspective on the Dutch Disease Hypothesis," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 3(2).
    32. Tony Addison & Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2017. "Aid, the Real Exchange Rate and Why Policy Matters: The Cases of Morocco and Tunisia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(7), pages 1104-1121, July.
    33. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    34. Peter Pedroni, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic and Finite Sample Properties of Pooled Time Series Tests with an Application to the PPP Hypothesis," Department of Economics Working Papers 2004-15, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    35. Holtemöller, Oliver & Mallick, Sushanta, 2013. "Exchange rate regime, real misalignment and currency crises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 5-14.
    36. Peter Pedroni, 2001. "Purchasing Power Parity Tests in Cointegrated Panels," Department of Economics Working Papers 2001-01, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    37. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:653-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. Johnson, Harry G., 1972. "The Monetary Approach to Balance-of-Payments Theory," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 1555-1572, March.
    39. Peter Pedroni, 2001. "Purchasing Power Parity Tests In Cointegrated Panels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 727-731, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jasnine Mogem Kouam & Luc Nembot Ndeffo & Mathurin Aimé Mekam Pouatcha, 2023. "The long and short run effects of foreign direct investment on economic complexity in Sub-Saharan African countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(3), pages 1421-1433.
    2. Nell, Kevin, 2023. "Inflation and growth in developing economies: A tribute to Professor Thirlwall," MPRA Paper 118757, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Sep 2023.

    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. Fang, Zheng & Chang, Youngho, 2016. "Energy, human capital and economic growth in Asia Pacific countries — Evidence from a panel cointegration and causality analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 177-184.
    2. Acikgoz, Senay & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2019. "Where does economic growth in the Middle Eastern and North African countries come from?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 172-183.
    3. Sofien Tiba & Musavir Ul Habib, 2024. "Examining the Causal Linkages Between Nuclear Energy, Environment, and Economic Growth: An Application from the SAARC Economies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9699-9722, June.
    4. Muntasir Murshed & Seemran Rashid, 2020. "An Empirical Investigation of Real Exchange Rate Responses to Foreign Currency Inflows: Revisiting the Dutch Disease Phenomenon in South Asia," The Economics and Finance Letters, Conscientia Beam, vol. 7(1), pages 23-46.
    5. Naima Chrid & Sami Saafi & Mohamed Chakroun, 2021. "Export Upgrading and Economic Growth: a Panel Cointegration and Causality Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(2), pages 811-841, June.
    6. Abdilahi Ali & Baris Alpaslan, 2013. "Do Migrant Remittances Complement Domestic Investment? New Evidence from Panel Cointegration," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1308, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    7. Vishal Jaunky, 2013. "Democracy and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel data approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 987-1008, October.
    8. Adolfo Maza & Paula Gutiérrez-Portilla, 2022. "Outward FDI and exports relation: A heterogeneous panel approach dealing with cross-sectional dependence," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 170, pages 174-189.
    9. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hou, Fujun & Sinha, Avik, 2018. "¬¬¬¬¬¬From Nonrenewable to Renewable Energy and Its Impact on Economic Growth: Silver Line of Research & Development Expenditures in APEC Countries," MPRA Paper 90611, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Dec 2018.
    10. Herzer, Dierk, 2013. "Cross-Country Heterogeneity and the Trade-Income Relationship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 194-211.
    11. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-56.
    12. Daniel, Betty C. & Shiamptanis, Christos, 2013. "Pushing the limit? Fiscal policy in the European Monetary Union," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 2307-2321.
    13. Omri, Anis, 2018. "Entrepreneurship, sectoral outputs and environmental improvement: International evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 46-55.
    14. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Marinko Skare, 2011. "Employment Growth, Inflation and Output Growth: Was Phillips Right?: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1138, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Liu, Xuyi & Zhang, Shun & Bae, Junghan, 2017. "The nexus of renewable energy-agriculture-environment in BRICS," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 489-496.
    16. Kahia, Montassar & Ben Aissa, Mohamed Safouane, 2014. "Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from MENA Net Oil Exporting Countries," MPRA Paper 80776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Kasman, Adnan & Duman, Yavuz Selman, 2015. "CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: A panel data analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 97-103.
    18. Jaunky, Vishal Chandr, 2012. "Is there a material Kuznets curve for aluminium? evidence from rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 296-307.
    19. Gazi Hassan & Arusha Cooray & Mark Holmes, 2017. "The effect of female and male health on economic growth: cross-country evidence within a production function framework," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 659-689, March.
    20. Fang, Zheng & Chen, Yang, 2017. "Human capital, energy, and economic development – Evidence from Chinese provincial data," RIEI Working Papers 2017-03, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Real exchange rate; Foreign aid; Debt interest repayments; Panel cointegration; African economies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics

    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:eee:ecmode:v:126:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323002468. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.