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Foreign Aid and Corruption: Clarifying Murky Empirical Conclusions

Author

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  • Uchenna Efobi
  • Ibukun Beecroft
  • Simplice Asongu

Abstract

This study considers foreign aid flow by sector in which the aid is directed and then estimates its impact on corruption in order to clarify the specific direction of aid flow that triggers (or does not trigger) corrupt practices. Data are from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development database, Freedom House dataset, and the World Bank Governance Indicators. The dynamic system GMM and quantile regressions (QR) were estimated for robust estimation and correction of endogeneity issues. We found that aid flows for the development of economic infrastructure, multi-sector and programme assistance were consistently reducing corruption. This result stands for both the entire sample and for the African countries (especially for countries at the 25th, 50th and 75th quintiles). Aid flows to social infrastructure and debt relief significantly induce corrupt practices in the sampled countries. These forms of aid only spur rent-seeking behaviour for countries at the lower quintiles of corruption. Two robust checks were estimated, including: (a) using an alternate explained variable—the corruption measure by Transparency International; and (b) correcting for endogeneity in the QR estimation by instrumenting the independent variables of interest with their first-lags. For both checks, the signs and significant values of the variables were consistent with the earlier estimation. JEL Codes: B20, F35, F50, O10, O55

Suggested Citation

  • Uchenna Efobi & Ibukun Beecroft & Simplice Asongu, 2019. "Foreign Aid and Corruption: Clarifying Murky Empirical Conclusions," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 54(3), pages 253-263, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:fortra:v:54:y:2019:i:3:p:253-263
    DOI: 10.1177/0015732519851633
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    10. William Easterly (ed.), 2008. "Reinventing Foreign Aid," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262550660, December.
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Foreign Aid and Inclusive Development: Updated Evidence from Africa, 2005–2012," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(1), pages 282-298, March.
    12. Selaya, Pablo & Sunesen, Eva Rytter, 2012. "Does Foreign Aid Increase Foreign Direct Investment?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2155-2176.
    13. Uchenna Efobi, 2015. "Politicians’ Attributes and Institutional Quality in Africa: A Focus on Corruption," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 787-813, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Efobi, Uchenna & Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "How Terrorism Explains Capital Flight from Africa," MPRA Paper 68662, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Foreign Aid and Inclusive Development: Updated Evidence from Africa, 2005–2012," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(1), pages 282-298, March.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Increasing Foreign Aid for Inclusive Human Development in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 443-466, July.
    4. Efobi, Uchenna & Asongu, Simplice, 2016. "Terrorism and capital flight from Africa," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 81-94.
    5. Asongu, Simplice, 2014. "A brief clarification to the questionable economics of foreign aid for inclusive human development," MPRA Paper 64458, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Asongu, Simplice & Efobi, Uchenna & Beecroft, Ibukun, 2015. "FDI, Aid, Terrorism: Conditional Threshold Evidence from Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 67856, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Simplice A. Asongu Ph.D & Joseph Nnanna, . "Foreign Aid And Sustainable Inclusive Human Development In Africa," Journal of Economic and Sustainable Growth 2, Office Of The Chief Economist, Development Bank of Nigeria.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign aid; political economy; development; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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