IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ijfiec/v28y2023i1p79-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of the effectiveness of foreign aid on the development of Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang Hongli
  • Prince Asare Vitenu‐Sackey

Abstract

Foreign aid with the aim of propagating growth and development in developing countries has been in existence since the end of World War II. Africa as the recipient of aid over this period is still wallowing in poverty and underdevelopment. This phenomenon has interested many researchers and donor agencies to unravel the true impact of aid to the developmental agenda of Africa but the findings are mixed and inconsistent. Our study focused on 50 African countries for the period of 1996 to 2017 on a panel study. The study adopts panel data methodologies such as generalized linear model, Arellano‐Bond dynamic panel data estimations (GMM two‐step approach), and granger causality to achieve our objective of identifying the linear and dynamic relationship among the variables. Foreign aid through developmental assistance is assumed to significantly impact growth but the results from our study report an opposing view thus negative and statistically linear and dynamic relationship. Moreover, the undermining factors hindering aid‐growth relationships in Africa are high levels of corruption, poverty, low level of human development, political instability, and poor institutional quality. On this note, we would like to recommend to policymakers to focus on technical assistance and educational projects that could strengthen institutions rather than other developmental projects. In essence, these would propagate development in the immediate time to promote long‐run growth agenda.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang Hongli & Prince Asare Vitenu‐Sackey, 2023. "Assessment of the effectiveness of foreign aid on the development of Africa," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 79-92, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:ijfiec:v:28:y:2023:i:1:p:79-92
    DOI: 10.1002/ijfe.2406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2406
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ijfe.2406?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    2. Mr. Martin Mühleisen & Mr. Dhaneshwar Ghura & Mr. Roger Nord & Mr. Michael T. Hadjimichael & E. Murat Ucer, 1995. "Sub-Saharan Africa: Growth, Savings, and Investment, 1986-93," IMF Occasional Papers 1995/006, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    4. Jan Willem Gunning & Paul Collier, 1999. "Explaining African Economic Performance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 64-111, March.
    5. Muhammed Islam, 2005. "Regime changes, economic policies and the effect of aid on growth," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(8), pages 1467-1492.
    6. Sandrina Berthault Moreira, 2005. "Evaluating The Impact Of Foreign Aid On Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Study," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 25-48, December.
    7. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    8. Ricardo Hausmann & Lant Pritchett & Dani Rodrik, 2005. "Growth Accelerations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 303-329, December.
    9. Easterly, William, 1999. "The ghost of financing gap: testing the growth model used in the international financial institutions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 423-438, December.
    10. Griffin, Keith B & Enos, J L, 1970. "Foreign Assistance: Objectives and Consequences," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 313-327, April.
    11. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    12. 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.
    13. Raghuram G. Rajan & Arvind Subramanian, 2008. "Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 643-665, November.
    14. Tony Addison & George Mavrotas & Mark McGillivray, 2005. "Aid to Africa: an unfinished agenda," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(8), pages 989-1001.
    15. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2012. "Do Institutions And Social Cohesion Enhance The Effectiveness Of Aid? New Evidence From Africa," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(01), pages 1-19.
    16. Hansen, Henrik & Tarp, Finn, 2001. "Aid and growth regressions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 547-570, April.
    17. Brian Snowdon, 2009. "The Solow Model, Poverty Traps, and the Foreign Aid Debate," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 241-262, Supplemen.
    18. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Hassan O. Ozekhome, 2017. "Foreign Aid, Foreign Direct Investment And Economic Growth In Ecowas Countries: Are There Diminishing Returns In The Aid-Growth Nexus?," West African Journal of Monetary and Economic Integration, West African Monetary Institute, vol. 17(1), pages 61-84, June.
    20. Karuna Gomanee & Sourafel Girma & Oliver Morrissey, 2005. "Aid and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: accounting for transmission mechanisms," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(8), pages 1055-1075.
    21. John Loxley & Harry Sackey, 2008. "Aid Effectiveness in Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 20(2), pages 163-199.
    22. Papanek, Gustav F, 1972. "The Effect of Aid and other Resource Transfers on Savings and Growth in Less Developed Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(327), pages 934-950, September.
    23. Mosley, Paul, 1980. "Aid, Savings and Growth Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 42(2), pages 79-95, May.
    24. Boone, Peter, 1996. "Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 289-329, February.
    25. Collier, Paul & Dollar, David, 2002. "Aid allocation and poverty reduction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1475-1500, September.
    26. Yéro Baldé, 2011. "The impact of Remittances and Foreign Aid on Savings/Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa," Post-Print hal-00785220, HAL.
    27. Malik, Girijasankar, 2008. "Foreign Aid and Economic Growth: A Cointegration Analysis of the Six Poorest African Countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 251-260, September.
    28. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    29. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    30. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    31. Author-Name: Jeffrey D. Sachs & John W. McArthur & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Margaret Kruk & Chandrika Bahadur & Michael Faye & Gordon McCord, 2004. "Ending Africa's Poverty Trap," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(1), pages 117-240.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    2. Innocent .U. Duru & Bartholomew .O.N. Okafor & Millicent Adanne Eze & Gabriel .O. Ebenyi, 2020. "Foreign Aid and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria," Growth, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 7(1), pages 35-50.
    3. Katarina Juselius & Niels Framroze Møller & Finn Tarp, 2014. "The Long-Run Impact of Foreign Aid in 36 African Countries: Insights from Multivariate Time Series Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(2), pages 153-184, April.
    4. Lessmann, Christian & Markwardt, Gunther, 2012. "Aid, Growth and Devolution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1723-1749.
    5. Tadesse, Tasew, 2011. "Foreign aid and economic growth in Ethiopia," MPRA Paper 33953, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Sep 2011.
    6. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    7. Saima Liaqat & Hafiz Khalil Ahmad & Temesgen Kifle & Mohammad Alauddin, 2019. "The Aid, Macroeconomic Policy Environment and Growth Nexus: Evidence from Selected Asian Countries," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 24(1), pages 83-102, Jan-June.
    8. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong & Jeffrey S. Racine, 2014. "Aid and Economic Growth: A Robust Approach," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 16(1), pages 1-35.
    9. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Dimitrios Varvarigos, 2007. "The Allocation of volatile aid and economic growth: Evidence and a suggestive theory," Discussion Paper Series 2007_07, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Mar 2007.
    10. Evelyn Wamboye & Abel Adekola & Bruno S. Sergi, 2014. "Foreign aid, legal origin, economic growth and Africa’s least developed countries," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(4), pages 335-357, October.
    11. Museru, Malimu & Toerien, Francois & Gossel, Sean, 2014. "The Impact of Aid and Public Investment Volatility on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 138-147.
    12. Minoiu, Camelia & Reddy, Sanjay G., 2010. "Development aid and economic growth: A positive long-run relation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 27-39, February.
    13. Michal Chervin & Sweder van Wijnbergen, 2010. "Economic Growth and the Volatility of Foreign Aid," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-002/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    14. Ferreira, I.A.R. & Simoes, M.C.N., 2013. "Aid And Growth: A Comparative Study Between Sub-Saharan Africa And Asia," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(1), pages 113-132.
    15. Ralf Hepp, 2005. "Health Expenditures Under the HIPC Debt Initiative," International Finance 0510005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Mark McGillivray & Simon Feeny & Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink, 2005. "It Works; It Doesn't; It Can, But that Depends...: 50 Years of Controversy Over the Macroeconomic Impact of Development Aid," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-54, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Sambit Bhattacharyya & Maurizio Intartaglia, 2021. "Foreign aid network diversification and its impact on growth, growth acceleration, and growth spell," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1216-1242, August.
    18. Mark McGillivray & Simon Feeny & Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink, 2006. "Controversies over the impact of development aid: it works; it doesn't; it can, but that depends …," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 1031-1050.
    19. Juliana Yael Milovich, 2018. "Does Aid Reduce Poverty?," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp122.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    20. Blessing Chiripanhura & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2015. "Aid, Political Business Cycles and Growth in Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1387-1421, November.

    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:wly:ijfiec:v:28:y:2023:i:1:p:79-92. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1076-9307/ .

    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.