Aid and Universal Primary Education

Abstract

Summary:Universal Primary Education (UPE) is one of the main objectives of development aid. However, very little empirical evidence of its effectiveness actually exists. Until very recently, the quality of available data was not sufficient to obtain robust results regarding the relationship between international aid and educational achievements. In this article, the latest, more disaggregated and more reliable data is used to study the relationship between aid to education and educational achievements. The focus here not only on educational variables in term of coverage, but also in term of equity and process. The year of Fast Track Initiative (FTI) endorsement is used as an original instrument to tackle the endogeneity problem of aid. Our results are very robust and indicate that aid to primary education has a strong effect on primary school enrollment and gender parity. A negative impact on repetitions rate is also indicated while no effect on the pupil teacher ratio can be observed. Diminishing return in the effectiveness of aid to primary education may also be highlighted. Finally, the governance variables do not appear to have an impact on this relationship.

The Dynamics of Aid and Political Rights

“…Some aid disbursement data are available, but most multilateral donors, who are not required to report any of their activities to the CRS, report only their commitments and not their disbursements (d'Aiglepierre and Wagner, ). For example, during our main sample period (2003–08), the International Fund for Agricultural Development reported over $175 mn of commitments under purpose code 15150, but did not report any disbursements.…”

Growth, Poverty and Development Assistance: When Does Foreign Aid Work?

“…Studies in education find that aid in the education sector has contributed to increased school enrolments and completion rates but in general only modestly (e.g. Arndt et al, 2014;Birchler and Michaelowa, 2013;Christensen et al, 2011;D'Aiglepierre and Wagner, 2013;Dreher et al, 2008;McGillivray et al, 2011). Of course, there is good reason to be suspicious of claims about improvements in school enrolment and completion rates.…”

Does Aid for Education Attract Foreign Investors? An Empirical Analysis for Latin America

“…At the same time, the recent literature suggests that analysing disaggregated aid and its impact on narrowly defined outcome variables offers a more promising way to assess the effectiveness of aid, compared to earlier studies on the economic growth effects of aggregate aid. In particular, it has been found that aid for education improved educational outcome variables such as enrolment rates (Dreher et al 2008) as well as completion rates, repetition rates, and gender parity (D'Aiglepierre and Wagner 2010). This provides an important channel through which aid for education could have promoted FDI in Latin America.…”