F35 - Foreign AidReturn

Africa has received considerable amounts of external aid over the last two decades without significant improvements in socio-economic conditions on the continent. This study, therefore, examines the effects of foreign aid on growth in Africa, and how institutional quality can moderate these effects. The study used the system generalized method of moments estimation technique and a panel of forty-two African countries over the period 2010-2018. Interestingly, the study established that even though foreign aid impacts negatively on growth in Africa, improving the quality of institutions on the continent can reverse this negative effect. In fact, the study computed a threshold value of institutional quality beyond which foreign aid would be a blessing to Africa. This implies that for foreign aid to contribute meaningfully to growth in Africa, the quality of institutions should improve beyond this threshold. Unfortunately, the average level of institutional quality in Africa is presently below this threshold. The study concluded that policymakers in Africa should take urgent steps to strengthen the quality of institutions on the continent as a means of exploiting the continent's huge foreign aid to drive growth and reduce the excruciating effects of poverty plaguing more than half of its population.

This article examines the impact of EU Cohesion Policy delivered through the European Structural and Investment Funds in the economic cycle and the fiscal policy of the Czech Republic in the years 2004-2015. Revenue arising from the EU increases aggregate demand, and this is a regular instrument for stabilizing fiscal policy. The key conclusion of the analysis is based on regression analysis, and there is demonstrate the procyclical nature of the EU Regional Policy and its negative impact on the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of national resources. Temporal definition of programming periods and the ability to prepare projects and their implementation in the context of national and EU legal framework were identified as the main determinants of procyclicality. However, these factors make the cyclicality purely accidental and cohesion policy without links to the economic cycle and performance of member countries.

The aim of our paper is to identify factors that influence the territorial selection and allocation of development aid of the Czech Republic. We applied random-effects probit and tobit models in our regression analysis which revealed that flows of Czech aid to individual developing countries are determined by variety of factors. Czech interests and mutual relations were mostly identified as statistically significant determinants, namely export volumes, closer historical relations and geographical proximity. The presence of Czech embassy in a country was not confirmed as a significant factor. The reflection of recipients' needs in Czech aid selection and allocation is rather ambiguous. While Czech aid flows depend positively on total population and negatively on per capita income of recipient countries, they are positively influenced by the recipients' level of social development. Similarly, the Czech Republic tends to give (more) aid to more democratic and freer countries with lower institutional quality.