Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a review of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of Aid for Trade (AfT) inflows and recommend new areas of interest concerning the initiative other than its effect on trade performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews a sample of 55 studies over the past 11 years. Besides, this paper categorised the reviewed empirical studies into three groups: the works concentrating on the trade performance effect; the works focusing on other economic factors effect; and the works concerning the allocation effect of these inflows. This paper also offers a detailed analysis of the multiple empirical methods, sources of data, coverage of the countries and forms of AfT inflows used in the reviewed literature.
Findings
Key findings indicated that AfT has overall produced a successful impact as reported by most studies. Moreover, it has been highlighted that the effectiveness of AfT may differ relying on multiple indicators: the category of AfT disbursements; income of the recipient country; the recipient country's geographical region; the amount of aggregate AfT as well as its main categories; the policy regulation and institutional quality of the recipient country; and the degree of liberalisation in the recipient country.
Originality/value
This paper is special in that it is the first to publish a comprehensive narrative analysis of 55 empirical pieces of evidence on the effectiveness of AfT over the past 11 years. It is also the first paper to review the previous literature regarding the effectiveness of AfT inflows on other non-trade outcomes, as well as trade outcomes in one single study. The outcome of the survey reveals new areas of interest in the effectiveness of AfT aside from trade performance.
This paper assesses the economic impact of the recycling sector in Malaysia to gauge its potential for strengthening green-based economic growth in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study employs a comparative impact assessment to analyse the input-output multiplier and linkages using the national input-output tables for 2005, 2010 and 2015. Our results indicate that the recycling sector has high potential to transform waste to wealth from which its value-added multiplier is sufficiently high and is also reinforced with high spillover effects. The recycling sector is identified as a strategic sector, where approximately 70% of its products are embodied in intermediate demand. This sector conforms to circular economy practices as other sectors in the economy are utilising recyclables for remanufacturing purposes. The value-added footprint level of the recycling sector also shows an increasing trend that implies its growing importance in supporting the growth of other production sectors in the economy. At the sectoral level, most of the recyclables are utilised by the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector. Hence, our work emphasises the importance of prioritising the recycling sector in development plans, as well as improving and strengthening the backward linkages between the recycling sector with other production sectors.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the highest recipients of remittances;
however, this is inconsistent with the region?s growth and the state of its
weak healthcare systems. This paper therefore analyses the effect of
remittances on health outcomes for 39 selected SSA countries over the period
1996 to 2016. It considers the channels through which remittances affect
health outcomes, including financial development and institutional quality.
Using dynamic panel estimation, we find that remittances sustain health
outcomes, while both financial development and institutional quality
complement remittances in this respect. SSA countries should therefore
continue to improve their financial sectors and develop the quality of
institutions to an adequate level. Achieving sound financial systems and
institutions would both allow and attract a substantial amount of
remittances, benefitting human capital and health outcomes and alleviating
poverty.
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