Aid to the Services Sector: Does it Affect Manufacturing Exports?

Abstract

The authors evaluated the impact of foreign aid to five services sectors (transportation, information and communications technologies (ICT), energy, banking/financial services, and business services) on exports of downstream manufacturing sectors in developing countries. To address the reverse causality between aid and exports, they relied on an original identification strategy that exploits (i) the variation of aid flows to services sectors and (ii) the variation of service intensities across industrial sectors and countries using input–output data. They found a positive effect of aid to services, in general, on downstream manufacturing exports of developing countries across regions and income‐level groups.