Evaluating Water- and Health-related Development Projects: A Cross-project and Micro-based Approach

Chinese Aid and Health at the Country and Local Level

“…Most closely related to this paper is Martorano et al (2020) who investigate the effect of Chinese aid on household welfare, focusing on 13 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, and report positive correlations between Chinese aid and lower infant mortality in a difference-in-differences framework. Greßer and Stadelmann (2019) provide conditional correlations between the sub-national presence of World Bank projects and health-related outcomes in a sample of almost 40 countries. They find a positive correlation between projects and health quality.…”

Chinese aid and health at the country and local level

“…6 In line with this expectation, we do not find evidence in support of the hypothesis that the World Bank's health-related aid is fungible. Just like Greßer and Stadelmann (2019) we even find that World Bank projects reduce infant mortality at local scales. Regarding an alternative interpretation of our results for China, a skeptical reader might think that the composition of women giving birth is affected by aid.…”

“…Most closely related to this paper is Martorano et al (2020) who investigate the effect of Chinese aid on household welfare, focusing on 13 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, and report positive correlations between Chinese aid and lower infant mortality in a difference-in-differences framework. Greßer and Stadelmann (2019) provide conditional correlations between the sub-national presence of World Bank projects and health-related outcomes in a sample of almost 40 countries. They find a positive correlation between projects and health quality.…”

Does Aid Improve Local Wealth? Micro‐Level Evidence from Africa

“…Since its release, AidData's geocoded datasets on aid projects have engendered sub‐national analysis into aid's impact on various socioeconomic indicators. These micro‐level studies document that aid reduces infant mortality (Kotsadam et al, 2018; Martorano et al, 2020; Wayoro & Ndikumana, 2020), improves water access (Greßer & Stadelmann, 2021), and education (Martorano et al, 2020). What is not yet clear from the existing literature is whether the wealth of citizens is improved, which is one of the major aims of aid.…”

“…In assessing the impacts of aid on local wealth using micro-level geospatial data, this study adds important evidence to the burgeoning studies evaluating aid's effect on varied indicators (see Appiah-Kubi & Jarrett, 2023;Atitianti, 2023;Atitianti & Asiamah, 2023;Greßer & Stadelmann, 2021). Additionally, focusing on aid from China and the World Bank allows us to assess the effect of aid from two diverse donors (Gehring et al, 2019).…”