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Health Aid, Governance and Infant Mortality

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  • Doucouliagos, Chris

    (Deakin University)

  • Hennessy, Jack

    (Deakin University)

  • Mallick, Debdulal

    (Deakin University)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of health aid on infant mortality conditional on the quality of governance in 96 recipient countries. Our analysis applies the long difference estimator and instrumental variable estimation, with aid instrumented by donor government fractionalization interacted with the probability of allocating health aid to a recipient nation. The effectiveness of health aid in reducing infant mortality is conditional on good governance (measured either as government effectiveness or control of corruption). Specifically, health aid to a recipient nation that experiences a one standard deviation improvement in government effectiveness reduces infant mortality by about 4 percent. Our findings reaffirm the importance of improving the quality of governance in recipient nations.

Suggested Citation

  • Doucouliagos, Chris & Hennessy, Jack & Mallick, Debdulal, 2019. "Health Aid, Governance and Infant Mortality," IZA Discussion Papers 12166, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12166
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    Cited by:

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    3. Ramkissoon, Benjamin & Deonanan, Regan, 2023. "How do remittances impact child mortality and are there preconditions?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    4. Yoojin Lim & Youngwan Kim & Daniel Connolly, 2023. "Assessing the impact of aid on public health expenditure in aid recipient countries," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(1), January.
    5. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Aid effectiveness and donor motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    6. Tim Röthel, 2023. "Budget support to the health sector—The right choice for strong institutions? Evidence from panel data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 735-770, May.
    7. Maame Esi Woode & Duncan Mortimer & Rohan Sweeney, 2021. "The impact of health sector‐wide approaches on aid effectiveness and infant mortality," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 826-844, July.
    8. Hyunyi Choi & Keuntae Cho, 2023. "Effects of Science, Technology, and Innovation Official Development Assistance on Innovative Capacity in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    9. Li, Jia, 2024. "Less stunted? The impact of Chinese health aid on child nutrition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    10. Hennessy, Jack & Mortimer, Duncan & Sweeney, Rohan & Woode, Maame Esi, 2023. "Donor versus recipient preferences for aid allocation: A systematic review of stated-preference studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health aid; infant mortality; good governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development

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