Ndanshau, Michael O.A. and Joseph, Cornel (2025): Effect of Foreign Aid on Domestic Saving in Tanzania.
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Abstract
This study sought to establish the relevance of the classical view that foreign aid complements domestic savings, using Tanzania’s time-series data for 1966-2023. The empirical investigation was based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds cointegration technique. The empirical results show that aid augmented and substituted for domestic savings in Tanzania in both the short and long run. The study's findings suggest that the government in Tanzania should be wary of seeking aid, as doing so significantly reduces domestic savings in the short run. Moreover, the government should continue implementing policies that support aid for sustainable long-term growth.
| Item Type: | MPRA Paper |
|---|---|
| Original Title: | Effect of Foreign Aid on Domestic Saving in Tanzania |
| English Title: | Effect of Foreign Aid on Domestic Saving in Tanzania |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | Foreign aid, domestic savings, ARDL |
| Subjects: | F - International Economics > F3 - International Finance > F35 - Foreign Aid O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O55 - Africa |
| Item ID: | 128783 |
| Depositing User: | Professor Michael . Ndanshau |
| Date Deposited: | 15 May 2026 15:23 |
| Last Modified: | 15 May 2026 16:09 |
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| URI: | https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/128783 |

