IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v51y2019i12p1319-1338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The long-run effect of aid on health: evidence from panel cointegration analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Dierk Herzer

Abstract

Although a major objective of aid donors is to improve health outcomes in recipient countries, there is relatively little research on whether aid to the health sector leads to improved health outcomes, and even less on the impact of total aid. This paper examines the relationship between total aid and population health using panel cointegration and causality techniques designed to deal with problems afflicting previous aid-health studies: spurious regressions, omitted variables, endogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and parameter heterogeneity. The main results are: (i) aid has, on average, a small but negative long-run effect on health, (ii) while the long-run (or trend) effect of aid on health is negative, the short-run (temporary) effect of aid on health is positive, (iii) causality runs in only one direction, from aid to health, and (iv) aid worsens health mainly in sub-Saharan countries, but has a positive, albeit statistically insignificant, long-run impact on health in Latin American and Caribbean countries and in countries with negative values of net ODA.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:51:y:2019:i:12:p:1319-1338
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2018.1527449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2018.1527449
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2018.1527449?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. Entorf, Horst, 1997. "Random walks with drifts: Nonsense regression and spurious fixed-effect estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 287-296, October.
    2. Jakob Svensson, 2005. "Eight Questions about Corruption," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 19-42, Summer.
    3. Burnside, Craig & Dollar, David, 1998. "Aid, the incentive regime, and poverty reduction," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1937, The World Bank.
    4. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    5. Kao, Chihwa, 1999. "Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 1-44, May.
    6. Dierk Herzer & Michael Grimm, 2012. "Does foreign aid increase private investment? Evidence from panel cointegration," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(20), pages 2537-2550, July.
    7. László Mátyás & Patrick Sevestre (ed.), 2008. "The Econometrics of Panel Data," Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, Springer, number 978-3-540-75892-1, February.
    8. Burnside, Craig & Dollar, David, 2004. "Aid, policies, and growth : revisiting the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3251, The World Bank.
    9. Lutkepohl, Helmut, 2007. "General-to-specific or specific-to-general modelling? An opinion on current econometric terminology," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 319-324, January.
    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. Ramkissoon, Benjamin & Deonanan, Regan, 2023. "How do remittances impact child mortality and are there preconditions?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    2. Kumar, Virender & Dua, Pami, 2024. "What explains foreign portfolio investment inflows to BRICS countries?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 32-46.
    3. Naveen Kumar & Dibyendu Maiti, 2024. "The Dynamic Causal Impact of Climate Change on Economic Activity - A Disaggregated Panel Analysis of India," Working papers 345, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    4. Rockie U Kei Kuok & Tay T.R. Koo & Christine Lim, 2024. "Air transport capacity and tourism demand: A panel cointegration approach with cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 702-727, May.

    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. Dierk Herzer & Julian Donaubauer, 2018. "The long-run effect of foreign direct investment on total factor productivity in developing countries: a panel cointegration analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 309-342, March.
    2. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2012. "The effect of foreign aid on income inequality: Evidence from panel cointegration," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 245-255.
    3. Dierk Herzer & Philipp Hühne & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2014. "FDI and Income Inequality—Evidence from Latin American Economies," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 778-793, November.
    4. Herzer, Dierk, 2013. "Cross-Country Heterogeneity and the Trade-Income Relationship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 194-211.
    5. 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.
    6. Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann & Axel Dreher & Dierk Herzer & Stephan Klasen & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2012. "Does foreign aid really raise per capita income? A time series perspective," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 288-313, February.
    7. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric, 2011. "Can reserve additions in mature crude oil provinces attenuate peak oil?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 5755-5764.
    8. 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.
    9. Yahyaoui, Ismahen & Bouchoucha, Najeh, 2019. "The Long-run relationship between ODA, growth and governance: An application of FMOLS and DOLS Approachs," MPRA Paper 95938, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Dierk Herzer, 2017. "The Long-run Relationship Between Trade and Population Health: Evidence from Five Decades," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 462-487, February.
    11. Abdilahi Ali & Baris Alpaslan, 2017. "Is There an Investment Motive Behind Remittances? Evidence From Panel Cointegration," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 51(1), pages 63-82, January-M.
    12. Herzer, Dierk, 2014. "Unions and income inequality: a heterogenous cointegration and causality analysis," Working Paper 146/2014, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg.
    13. Declan French, 2012. "Causation between health and income: a need to panic," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 583-601, April.
    14. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2014. "Green Growth in Mexico, Brazil and Chile: Policy strategies and future prospects," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 229, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Dierk Herzer, 2016. "Unions and Income Inequality: A Heterogeneous Panel Co-integration and Causality Analysis," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 30(3), pages 318-346, September.
    16. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2013. "Private Donations, Government Grants, Commercial Activities, and Fundraising: Cointegration and Causality for NGOs in International Development Cooperation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 234-251.
    17. Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D. & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Dierk Herzer & Stephan Klasen & Axel Dreher, 2009. "In Search for a Long-run Relationship between Aid and Growth: Pitfalls and Findings," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 196, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Winters, Matthew S. & Martinez, Gina, 2015. "The Role of Governance in Determining Foreign Aid Flow Composition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 516-531.
    19. Francesca Iorio & Stefano Fachin, 2014. "Savings and investments in the OECD: a panel cointegration study with a new bootstrap test," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1271-1300, June.
    20. Balázs Szent-Iványi, 2015. "Are Democratising Countries Rewarded with Higher Levels of Foreign Aid?," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 65(4), pages 593-615, December.

    More about this item

    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:taf:applec:v:51:y:2019:i:12:p:1319-1338. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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.