The Role of Remittances, FDI and Foreign Aid in Economic Growth in Low and Middle Income African Countries

Author(s):  
Gutu Gutema
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aye Mengistu Alemu ◽  
Jin-Sang Lee

Previous empirical studies on the effects of foreign aid on economic growth have generated mixed results that make it difficult to draw policy recommendations. The main reason for such mixed results is the choice of a single aggregate list of countries, regardless of the disparities in levels of development. This study therefore fills the development gap by disaggregating the African data into a panel of 20 middle- income and 19 low- income African countries over a period of 15 years between 1995 and 2010, and employing a dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) model to address the dynamic nature of economic growth as well as the problems of endogeneity. The results of this study support the theoretical hypothesis that a positive relationship between aid and GDP growth exists, but only for low-income African countries, not middle-income ones. On the other hand, the study reveals that middle- income African countries tend to experience a greater impact on their economic growth from foreign direct investment (FDI) and natural resources revenues, mainly oil exports. This implies that the frequent criticism that foreign aid has not contributed to economic growth is flawed, at least in the case of low-income African countries. In fact, foreign aid has played a critical role in stimulating economic growth in such countries through supplementing domestic sources of finance such as savings, thus increasing the amount of investment and capital stock in them.


Author(s):  
Ningaye Paul ◽  
Abba Yadou Barnabé ◽  
Balla Mekongo Célestin Ghislain

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between migrant remittances and economic growth by considering the role of financial efficiency in 34 African countries from 1995 to 2016. The methodology is based on a GMM system model and a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) on a sample of 34 African countries. The empirical results show us the following conclusions: (i) Migrant remittances and financial efficiency have a positive impact on economic growth. (ii) The interaction between remittances and financial efficiency has a negative impact on economic growth. (iii) Migrant remittances have a long-term impact on economic growth. (iv) The combined effect of migrant remittances and financial efficiency has a negative impact on economic growth. Moreover, this impact is more pronounced in low-and middle-income countries. To better benefit from migrant remittances, recipient countries need to focus on financial development.


Development ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Wamboye ◽  
Abel Adekola ◽  
Bruno S Sergi

2021 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 01019
Author(s):  
Siming Jia

This paper collected panel data of 74 countries from 1990 to 2017, and based on the Chinn-It index to depict the degree of capital account opening. Under the framework of the neoclassical economic growth model, the impact of capital account opening on economic growth was empirically tested by systematic GMM. The results show that: first, taking the overall capital account openness as the explanatory variable, the coefficient of the capital account openness of the whole sample is significantly positive. Further, considering the national differences found that high income countries capital account openness coefficient is significantly positive, but in low and middle-income countries capital account openness coefficient on economic and statistical significance were not significant, indicating that high income countries made open dividends, while in low and middle-income countries and earnings in the capital account liberalization. Finally, it proposes to open the capital account sub-projects step by step, strengthen prudent supervision in the process of further opening the capital account, and improve the regulatory legal system.


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