Effects of aid for trade on extensive and intensive margins of greenfield FDI

Using a panel dataset of 105 developing countries for the period 2003–15, this paper assesses the effects of Aid for Trade (AfT) on greenfield FDI flows to the aid‐recipient countries. Particularly, this paper classifies the total dollar value of greenfield FDI flows to each recipient country in terms of four different layers: the extensive and intensive margins of projects as well as the extensive and intensive margins of source countries. Applying the system GMM estimator, this paper finds that AfT not only increases the dollar value of FDI flows to the recipient countries but also helps diversify the greenfield projects and source countries. In addition, this paper finds that AfT has a greater effect for greenfield FDI from donor (developed) countries than from non‐donor (developing) countries. Among the three components of AfT, aid for trade‐related infrastructure and aid for trade policy regulations are found to have positive links with greenfield FDI, irrespective of source‐country groups, yet their effects are larger for developed source countries. In contrast, aid for building productive capacity hinders greenfield FDI flows from non‐donor countries, while it promotes greenfield FDI from donor countries. We offer some explanations for this finding.     

中国参与WTO贸易援助所面临的问题评析

贸易援助是官方发展援助的重要形式,中国在WTO贸易援助倡议的启动、后续工作及实际参与中起到了积极作用。中国国际经济地位的转变让其他国家产生更高的援助期待。发达国家对发展中国家提供的贸易援助是其应当承担的国际义务。"南南合作"是发展中国家之间的互助合作形式,其本质是基于平等理念的合作,是贸易援助的补充形式。中国在力所能及的条件下应当尽量与发展中国家开展"南南合作"并在此过程中提供适当援助。完善对外援助法律制度是顺利开展贸易援助、实现援助目的的保障。     

Does Aid for Trade Enhance Export Performance? Investigating the Infrastructure Channel

There are few empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of aid for trade as regards trade performance. Furthermore, existing work does not test which are the channels through which aid for trade has an impact on trade performance. We address this question using a two‐step empirical analysis. Relying on an export performance model, we first test whether institutions and infrastructure, our two potential channels of transmission, are significant determinants of export performance. Second, we test the impact of aid for trade sectoral flows on the previously detected determinants of export performance. We show, as part of the first step, that the infrastructure channel is a highly significant determinant of export performance, whereas the institutional channel turns out to have a limited positive impact on developing countries’ export performance. Furthermore, we show, from the second step, that aid for infrastructure, once instrumented, has a strong and positive impact on the infrastructure level. As a result, we find that a ten per cent increase in aid for infrastructure commitments per capita in developing countries leads to an average 2.34 per cent increase in the exports over GDP ratio. It is also equivalent to a 2.71 per cent reduction in tariff and nontariff barriers. These results highlight the high potential impact of aid for trade on developing countries’ export performance throughout the infrastructure channel.     

The endogenous skill bias of technical change and wage inequality in developing countries

This paper draws on existing empirical literature and an original theoretical model to argue that technical change does not have to be skill-biased in developing countries. Instead, the extent to which technology adoption in developing countries favors skilled workers depends on a number of factors. Free trade induces technology that favors skilled workers in skill-abundant developing countries and that favors unskilled workers in skill-scarce developing countries, and therefore amplifies the predicted wage effects of trade liberalization. Developing countries experience technical change that is skill-biased when imported skill-biased technologies become relatively cheaper. Increased skill supply further biases technical change in favor of skilled labor. These features aid our understanding of the observed rises in inequality within developing countries, the absence of a significant downward effect of expanded educational attainment on skill premia, and the differential effects of trade liberalization on inequality.     

The effects of development aid on exports

Of what benefit cooperation with developing countries is in actual fact to the industrialized countries is a question which is receiving increasing attention in the discussions on development policy. In the present economic situation special interest attaches in this context of course to the repercussions of public development aid services on the export activities of enterprises in the donor countries. The following article is based on the findings of a study into “Job procurement through development aid credits and exports to developing countries“ (Arbeitsplatzsicherung durch Entwicklungshilfekredite und Exporte in Entwicklungsländer, Basle 1978) which was undertaken by the author together with Christel Bergmann on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation.     

Does aid for trade diversify the export structure of recipient countries?

The importance of aid for trade as a tool for facilitating trade, economic growth and social development has received attention since the concept was introduced in 2005. While one of the main targets of aid for trade is export diversification, reflecting the fact that the exports of many developing countries are concentrated in a small range of items, there have not been many efforts to measure the effect of aid for trade on export structure. This study, therefore, attempts to trace the relationship between aid for trade and 133 aid recipients' export structure between 1996 and 2013. Using the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index to measure the degree of export concentration, the findings suggest that total aid for trade has reduced the concentration level in the short run. In the long run, on the other hand, aid for trade has had no significant effect on export structure of recipient countries. Only aid for building productive capacity, which is one of the three categories of aid for trade, contributes to lower concentration. Yet, this change is not caused by an increase in export diversity but by the redistribution of shares of existing products of a similar sophistication level.     

Aid and investment in LDCs: A robust approach

This paper uses panel data and the Local Linear Kernel Estimator (LLKE), to investigate the effects of aid on physical capital investment in developing countries. Specifically, we investigate the robustness of the relationship between aid and physical capital investment in Less Developed countries (LDCs) using two different measures of aid and five measures of the policy environment. We find that external aid has a positive and significant impact on physical capital investment given the support of the sample data we use. This effect is robust to the measurement of aid as well as the policy environment. However, the character of the positive relationship between aid and investment varies with the combination of the aid measure and the policy environment. We find that conditional on inflows, the better the policy environment, the higher the investment rate, all things being equal. The results have implications for aid research and aid policy.     

Aid,trade and migration: How do bilateral flows interact?

This paper takes as its point of departure the European Commission's position, set out in 2005, which laid clear emphasis on aid and trade as tools for controlling immigration. We attempt to subject this position to empirical investigation. We exploit data on bilateral aid, trade and migration flows between developed and developing countries, for the period 2000–10, adopting an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity issue due to potential simultaneity bias. Our results establish that increasing aid and trade with developing countries is likely to fail to contain immigration, at least in the short run. The pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that promoting development in migrant‐sending countries, or cooperating with such countries to control migration outflows, is not sufficient to lessen immigration. Increasing visa restrictions and controls at borders is generally controversial; still, the results imply that policymakers cannot attain their short‐term immigration goals with the so‐called smart solutions of aid and trade.     

国际双边发展援助对FDI的影响研究——基于17个OECD国家对华发展援助的实证

本文运用扩展的Solow模型阐述了援助影响FDI的理论机制,并以中国为研究主体,以17个OECD国家的数据为样本,实证分析了双边发展援助对FDI的短期、中期和长期效应。实证结果显示:在短期,17个OECD国家的对华发展援助挤出了这些国家对中国的FDI,但在中长期促进了这些国家对中国的FDI,并且时间越长,促进效应越强。因此,发达国家向中国投入发展援助是有效的。双方应充分利用这种有效性,发达国家现期不适宜取消对华发展援助,中国应积极寻求双边发展援助来促进新兴产业和中西部地区的发展。     

Targeting Aid to the Needy and Deserving: Nothing But Promises?

By reallocating aid to where it is needed most and where a productive use is most likely, donors could help alleviate poverty in developing countries. The rhetoric of donors suggests that this insight has increasingly shaped the allocation of aid. We assess the poverty and policy orientation of bilateral and multilateral aid in different ways. In addition to presenting stylised facts based on bivariate correlations, we apply a Tobit model that captures both altruistic and selfish donor motives. We find little evidence supporting the view that the targeting of aid has improved significantly. Most donors provide higher aid to relatively poor countries, but so far the fight against poverty has not resulted in a stronger focus on needy recipients with favourable local conditions. The estimation results reveal that the policy orientation of aid critically depends on how local conditions are measured. In general, however, donors appear to be less policy‐oriented than poverty‐oriented. The response of donors to changing institutional and policy conditions in recipient countries turns out to be fairly weak. We reject the proposition that multilateral aid is clearly superior to bilateral aid in terms of rewarding poor countries with better policies and institutions.     

Does foreign aid mitigate the adverse effect of expropriation risk on foreign direct investment?

We construct a model of FDI, risk and aid, where a country loses access to FDI and aid if the country expropriates FDI. We show that: (i) the threat of expropriation leads to under-investment; (ii) the optimal level of FDI decreases as the risk of expropriation rises; and (iii) aid mitigates the adverse effect of expropriation risk on FDI. The empirical analysis employs data for 35 low-income countries and 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, over the period 1983-2004. We find that risk has a negative effect on FDI and that aid mitigates but cannot eliminate the adverse effect of risk.     

Progress in German development assistance

A few months ago, Dr Eppler took over the ministry responsible for German development aid. The new minister considers development aid an important instrument for the international détente, which is to facilitate cooperation between peoples and which, in the long run, will guarantee world peace. Decisive for the carrying-through of aid measures is not a possible advantage for the donor countries, but only the benefit resulting for the developing countries. For this aim, steadily growing aid contributions do by no means suffice. What is necessary is rather a careful qualitative selection of measures and an improvement in their organisational prosecution.     

发展中国家对华反倾销的影响与动因——与发达国家的比较分析

在全球反倾销调查趋于下降的情况下,中国面临的反倾销形势依然严峻,发展中国家逐渐成为对华反倾销的主体。文章通过与发达国家比较,实证分析发展中国家对华反倾销的影响及成因,并提出相应的对策。     

通胀目标法:理论分析与效用实践

通胀目标法是西方国家近年来出现的一种新兴的货币政策目标法,它对提高货币政策透明度、改善通货膨胀状况具有极大的效用.目前有部分发展中国家采用这一货币政策方法,但发展中国家在总体上能否实行还有待于各种外部政策措施的进一步完善.     

Financial globalisation and the labour share in developing countries: The type of capital matters

In this paper, we investigate how de facto financial globalisation has influenced the labour share in developing countries. Our main argument is the need to distinguish between different types of capital in this context as they differ in their effect on the host countries' production process and vary concerning their bargaining power vis-à-vis labour. Our econometric analysis of the impact of foreign direct versus portfolio investment in a sample of about 40 developing and transition countries after 1992 supports this claim. Using different panel data techniques to address potential endogeneity problems, we find that foreign direct investment has a positive effect on the labour share in developing countries, while the impact of portfolio investment is significantly smaller and potentially negative. Our results also highlight that de facto foreign investment cannot explain the decline of the labour share in developing countries over the investigated period.     

Reforms — Not revolutionary changes

Development aid is rightly considered to be one of the most important tasks of our time. Irrespective of whether this aid is seen from the political, economic or simply from the humanitarian aspect, there is no question of its urgency and of its broad field of application. On the other hand, there, is very little agreement in donor and recipient countries about the adequate volume of development aid, the methods of raising it and the forms of distribution. But in view of the enormous magnitude and the diversity of range of this task, it would be a mistake to resign or—panic-stricken—to wish to achieve too much too soon. What donor countries can and must do is to plan aid within the limits of their possibilities and in accordance with the circumstances of developing countries and be resolute in its execution. The following interview shall help to clarify the principles and forms of West Germany's development aid, as well as improvements in its effective implementation.     

Automatic transfer payments to developing countries

As a more critical view is being taken of traditional development aid concepts, alternative means of advancing the resource transfer between industrialized and developing countries have attracted increasing attention in recent years. A system of tendentially automated transfer payments to developing countries is one of these alternatives. The author of the following article examines whether such a system has a chance of meeting common interests of industrialized and developing countries and how it could be elaborated to make it more effective.     

Innovative Sources of Development Finance: Global Cooperation in the Twenty‐first Century

This paper argues that in view of the resource crunch confronting many developing countries and the fall in overseas development aid flows to them, new sources of development finance need to be found. We consider international taxes, fees and levies that could considerably augment aid flows to developing countries and some of which may have coincident beneficial effects. Estimates of the revenue yield from such taxes and levies are also presented. The paper proposes the establishment of a ‘world development organisation’ to coordinate such effort. A formula for voting within the organisation and another for disbursal of such aid are suggested.     

Aid Delivery through Non‐governmental Organisations: Does the Aid Channel Matter for the Targeting of Swedish Aid?

This paper analyses whether aid channelled through non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) is less affected by selfish donor motivations and better targeted to needy recipient countries than aid distributed by state agencies. We employ Tobit (and Probit) models and make use of an exceptionally detailed database that allows an assessment of the allocation of Swedish aid channelled through NGOs in comparison to the allocation of Swedish official aid. Our analysis provides mixed results. On the one hand, NGOs appear to be altruistic as far as available indicators on political and commercial motivations of aid can tell. On the other hand, needs‐based targeting of aid by NGOs turns out to be surprisingly weak. GDP per capita of recipient countries shapes the allocation of official aid, but not that of aid channelled through NGOs. The headcount of absolute poverty has a significantly positive effect on aid allocation, but its impact is not particularly strong when NGOs are involved. Overall, the Swedish case supports the sceptical view that NGOs are not necessarily superior donors compared to state aid agencies.