Do Women Benefit from Women Education Aid? Evidence from Panel Data

Abstract

Generally, the literature on aid focuses on the potential growth effects of aggregate aid. Due to the fact that donors have consistently asserted the multidimensionality of their purposes, it is necessary to conduct a much more disaggregated analysis of aid effectiveness. In this study, the effect of women education aid on 72 developing countries is examined empirically over the period 1990–2016. Using cross-country regression, this study examines the effectiveness of aid targeted at women’s education. Based on the fact that donors provide a large amount of women’s education aid to countries whose voting positions in the UN General Assembly are similar, this analysis exploits an instrumental variable. This study shows that women’s education aid has a significantly positive effect on women’s education. The results of this study are robust when different sensitivity checks are performed. The findings have significant policy implications for donor countries and international aid organizations, as they assist in identifying the most effective types of foreign aid flow to the various sectors of the recipient country’s economy.