The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history

This study evaluates the influence of natural resource rents and foreign aid on democracy using panel data from 45 SSA countries from 1980 to 2021. Using five different democracy indices, six different foreign aid variables and six different natural resource rent variables, our endogeneity-corrected...

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Main Authors: Alex O. Acheampong, John Taden
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-01-01
Series:Journal of Government and Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319324000363
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author Alex O. Acheampong
John Taden
author_facet Alex O. Acheampong
John Taden
author_sort Alex O. Acheampong
collection DOAJ
description This study evaluates the influence of natural resource rents and foreign aid on democracy using panel data from 45 SSA countries from 1980 to 2021. Using five different democracy indices, six different foreign aid variables and six different natural resource rent variables, our endogeneity-corrected results establish the following conclusions: (i) all the democracy indices respond positively and significantly to multilateral foreign aid, total development assistance committee (DAC) aid and bilateral aid from Australia, the USA, the United Nations, and the European Union (ii) the political resource curse, rentier and repression theories are valid for rent from mineral, gas and oil resources (iii) the democracy indices respond positively and significantly to rent from coal and forest resources (iv) the effect of foreign aid on the democracy indices is contingent on natural resource wealth (v) these findings are robust to an alternative econometric estimation technique and specifications. The policy implications are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-12f8c3aceef94fad8312763f048594bb2025-01-20T04:18:03ZengElsevierJournal of Government and Economics2667-31932024-01-0116100132The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's historyAlex O. Acheampong0John Taden1Bond Business School, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia; Centre for Data Analytics, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia; Corresponding author.Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, USAThis study evaluates the influence of natural resource rents and foreign aid on democracy using panel data from 45 SSA countries from 1980 to 2021. Using five different democracy indices, six different foreign aid variables and six different natural resource rent variables, our endogeneity-corrected results establish the following conclusions: (i) all the democracy indices respond positively and significantly to multilateral foreign aid, total development assistance committee (DAC) aid and bilateral aid from Australia, the USA, the United Nations, and the European Union (ii) the political resource curse, rentier and repression theories are valid for rent from mineral, gas and oil resources (iii) the democracy indices respond positively and significantly to rent from coal and forest resources (iv) the effect of foreign aid on the democracy indices is contingent on natural resource wealth (v) these findings are robust to an alternative econometric estimation technique and specifications. The policy implications are discussed.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319324000363C25D70F35
spellingShingle Alex O. Acheampong
John Taden
The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
Journal of Government and Economics
C25
D70
F35
title The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
title_full The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
title_fullStr The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
title_full_unstemmed The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
title_short The contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions: Evidence from over 40 years of sub-Sahara Africa's history
title_sort contributions of foreign aid and natural resource wealth to democratic institutions evidence from over 40 years of sub sahara africa s history
topic C25
D70
F35
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319324000363
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