Development Aid and Growth: An association converging to zero

Chris Doucouliagos and Martin Paldam

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: This note deals with a paradox: A literature growing exponentially in spite of the fact that it keeps finding the same result. We draw upon the findings of 106 empirical studies, of which 32 appeared in the last 4 years, to examine whether development aid generates economic growth. The studies report aid effects that have been steadily falling over time. The newer studies find a steady continuation of the downward trend. Using meta-regression analysis, we show that total aid has never had an effect on economic growth. Theoretically, this result might be due to simultaneity bias, but the evidence does not support this notion. There is some evidence that some aid components do have a positive effect on growth.

Keywords: Aid effectiveness; meta-regression analysis; economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10
Date: 2009-12-28
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://repec.econ.au.dk/repec/afn/wp/09/wp09_17.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aah:aarhec:2009-17

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().