How Aid Helps Achieving MDGs in Africa: the Case of Primary Education

Yogo, Urbain Thierry and Mallaye, Douzounet (2014): How Aid Helps Achieving MDGs in Africa: the Case of Primary Education.

Abstract

Since 2000, Official Development Assistance has played a crucial role in efforts related to the achievement of MDGs. This is especially the case in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) which is the world’s largest recipient of foreign aid. This paper assesses the effectiveness of aid and its efficient use in achieving universal primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of aid is assessed for a sample of 35 SSA countries over the decade 2000-2010. The results suggest that higher aid to education significantly increases primary completion rate. This result is robust to the use of various methods of estimation, the inclusion of instrument to account for the endogeneity of aid and the set of control variables included in regressions. In addition, this paper shows that there is strong heterogeneity in the efficient use of aid across countries in SSA.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Education Aid, Sub-Saharan Africa, Primary Completion Rate, Instrumental Variable
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

References

Aiglepierre, R. and L. Wagner (2010), “Aid and Universal Primary Education”, CERDI, Etudes et Documents, E 2010.22.

Bermeo, S. and leblang, D. (2014), “Migration and Foreign Aid”, Forthcoming Internal Oganization, available at http://fds.duke.edu/db/attachment/2633

Christensen, Z., Homer, D. and Nielson, D.L. (2011), “Dodging Adverse Selection: How DonorType and Governance Condition Aid’s Effects on School Enrollment”, World Development, 39:2044-2053

Clemens, Michael A. ( 2004) “The Long Walk to School: International Education Goals in Historical Perspective”. Center for Global Development Working Paper 37. Washington, D.C.

Combes, J.-L., & Ebeke, C. (2011), “Remittances and household consumption instability in developing countries”. World Development, 39, 1076–1089.

Combes, J.L., Ebeke, C., Maurel, M. and Yogo, T. (2014), “Remittances and Working Poverty”, Journal of Development Studies, DOI:10.1080/00220388.2014.940912

Dreher, A., Nunnenkamp, P. & Thiele, R. (2008), “Does Aid for Education Educate Children? Evidence from Panel Data”, World Bank Economic Review, 22 (2), p. 291-314.

Fielding, David, Mark McGillivray, and Sebastian Torres. (2005), “Synergies between Health, Wealth, Education, Fertility and Aid: Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals.”, World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki. (www.wider.unu.edu/research/2004-2005/2004-2005-1/mdg-papers/fielding-mcgillivray-torres-160805.pdf).

Fuchs, A., Dreher, A and Nunnenkamp, P. (2014), “Determinants of Donors Generosity: A Survey of Aid Literature”, World Development, 56:172-199

Michaelowa, K., and A. Weber (2007). ‘Aid Effectiveness in the Education Sector: A Dynamic Panel Analysis. In S. Lahiri (ed.). Theory and Practice of Foreign Aid, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 357–85.

Rajan, R.G., and A. Subramanian (2008), “Aid and growth: what does the cross-country evidence really show?”, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(4): 643–665.

Riddell, A. (2012). ‘The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid to Education: What Can Be Learned?’. WIDER Working Paper 2012/75. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.

Staiger, Douglas, and James H. Stock. (1997). “Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments.” Econometrica 65(3):557–86.

Tavarez, J. (2003), “Does Foreign Aide Corrupt”, Economics Letters, 79: 99-106