Using a sample of 34 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1990-2012, this paper reveals that health aid helps to improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, for each additional unit of health aid, the prevalence of HIV decreases by 8.3% and child mortality decreases by 64% over 4 years. This effect operates mainly through the improvement of female education and the increase in health spending. Furthermore, the results do not support the hypothesis of a significant difference between post-conflict states and stable states in terms of aid effectiveness.

Abstract:Using a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries during the period of 2000-2010, this paper examines the effect of health aid on health outcomes. After taking into account the endogeneity and using the instrumental variable approach, the results reveal that health aid improves health outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, for each additional unit of health aid, life expectancy increases by 0.14, prevalence of HIV decreases by 0.05 and infant mortality decrease by 0.17. This effect operates mainly through the improvement of primary completion rate of female. However, the magnitude of the effects is too small if African countries would like to achieve MDGs through additional health aid.Furthermore, the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition indicates that differences in terms of the amount of health aid received do not explain the health outcomes gap between post conflict countries and stable countries. The relevant variables are governance and the female primary completion rate. The policy implications of the paper are further discussed.

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RésuméLa présente étude fournit l'évidence de l'efficacité de l'aide en faisant usage d'un échantillon de 34 pays d'Afrique sub‐saharienne sur la période 1990–2010. Après prise en compte de l'endogénéité de l'aide, les résultats de l'estimation révèlent que l'aide a un effet positif sur la croissance uniquement lorsque l'estimation est contrôlée du niveau de la gouvernance. La dynamique comparative quant à elle montre que la gouvernance et l'éducation sont les principaux canaux de transmission de l'aide à la croissance en environnement stable. En revanche, en environnement de post conflit, l'aide affecte la croissance via l'investissement en capital public (infrastructure). Enfin, l'approche de décomposition d'Oaxaca‐Blinder montre que l'écart en termes de montants d'aide reçus n'explique pas les différences de croissance observées entre pays stables et pays en situation de post conflit. Sur la base de ces résultats, les implications de politiques économiques sont discutées en conclusion.

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