Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in West Africa: Examining the Roles of Institutions

This study examines the roles of institutions on the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth in the 16 West African countries. Relying on panel data obtained from the World Bank’s world development and governance indicators, from 1996 to 2017, the study employs the autoregressive distributed lag technique in investigating the relationship. The empirical findings depict that foreign aid exerts a neutral effect on economic growth; the effect turns negative when the institutional variable is incorporated into the analysis. Again, the interaction effect of foreign aid and institution on economic growth is such that it reduces the negative effect of foreign aid on economic growth. The other factors of growth included are trade openness and government size, whose effects are positive and largely negative on the growth of the West African region, respectively. A significant policy implication from these findings is that the efforts of governments of the region should be directed towards building formidable economic, social and political institutions. This would not only reduce the negative impact of aid on growth but would also promote the competitiveness of the countries for private domestic and foreign capital; thus, reducing reliance on foreign aid.