Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector

The apparent fungibility of aid is a challenge to the evaluation of donor-funded development projects, requiring a comparison of the observed outcomes with the outcomes that would have occurred if the project had not gone ahead. Where projects are targeted on specific geographic areas, counterfactua...

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Main Author: Wagstaff, Adam
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5011
id okr-10986-5011
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-50112021-04-23T14:02:20Z Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector Wagstaff, Adam National Government Expenditures and Health H510 Health: General I100 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 International Linkages to Development Role of International Organizations O190 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions : International Trade, Finance, Investment, and Aid P330 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics Health Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360 The apparent fungibility of aid is a challenge to the evaluation of donor-funded development projects, requiring a comparison of the observed outcomes with the outcomes that would have occurred if the project had not gone ahead. Where projects are targeted on specific geographic areas, counterfactual outcomes in each can differ from observed outcomes because the amount of government spending (gross of aid) differs, the productivity of government spending differs, or both. This paper estimates the benefits of two concurrent World Bank health projects in Vietnam targeted on specific provinces. Estimates are derived from a model linking outcomes (under-five mortality) to government spending before and after the project and in project and nonproject provinces, and are presented for different assumptions regarding fungibility of funds (zero and full fungibility) and the impacts of the project on the productivity of government spending (the project modifies productivity in both sectors equally and in neither sector). The estimated mortality reductions are highly insensitive to the assumed degree of fungibility, but highly sensitive to the assumed productivity effects (the estimates range from 1 to 25%). The wide range reflects the uncertainty due to the lack of a genuine control group of provinces. 2012-03-30T07:30:50Z 2012-03-30T07:30:50Z 2011 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics 03043878 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5011 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Vietnam
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic National Government Expenditures and Health H510
Health: General I100
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
International Linkages to Development
Role of International Organizations O190
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions : International Trade, Finance, Investment, and Aid P330
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics
Health
Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360
spellingShingle National Government Expenditures and Health H510
Health: General I100
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
International Linkages to Development
Role of International Organizations O190
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions : International Trade, Finance, Investment, and Aid P330
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics
Health
Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360
Wagstaff, Adam
Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
geographic_facet Vietnam
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description The apparent fungibility of aid is a challenge to the evaluation of donor-funded development projects, requiring a comparison of the observed outcomes with the outcomes that would have occurred if the project had not gone ahead. Where projects are targeted on specific geographic areas, counterfactual outcomes in each can differ from observed outcomes because the amount of government spending (gross of aid) differs, the productivity of government spending differs, or both. This paper estimates the benefits of two concurrent World Bank health projects in Vietnam targeted on specific provinces. Estimates are derived from a model linking outcomes (under-five mortality) to government spending before and after the project and in project and nonproject provinces, and are presented for different assumptions regarding fungibility of funds (zero and full fungibility) and the impacts of the project on the productivity of government spending (the project modifies productivity in both sectors equally and in neither sector). The estimated mortality reductions are highly insensitive to the assumed degree of fungibility, but highly sensitive to the assumed productivity effects (the estimates range from 1 to 25%). The wide range reflects the uncertainty due to the lack of a genuine control group of provinces.
format Journal Article
author Wagstaff, Adam
author_facet Wagstaff, Adam
author_sort Wagstaff, Adam
title Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
title_short Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
title_full Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
title_fullStr Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
title_full_unstemmed Fungibility and the Impact of Development Assistance: Evidence from Vietnam's Health Sector
title_sort fungibility and the impact of development assistance: evidence from vietnam's health sector
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5011
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