Aid & innovation: a boost to the effectiveness of aid?

ABSTRACT: One of the most unanimous results of the economic literature is that innovation is a critical factor for sustained growth. Despite this consensus, previous research has not studied the impact of foreign aid devoted to promote developing countries’ innovation capacities. For this reason, th...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Quiñones Montellano, Ainoa|||0000-0002-7022-2130, Tezanos Vázquez, Sergio
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repositorio:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/9662
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10902/9662
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Innovation
Aid for science and technology
Aid effectiveness
Official Development Assistance (ODA)
Innovación
Ayuda para la ciencia y tecnología
Efectividad de la ayuda
Ayuda Oficial para el Desarrollo
Descrição
Resumo:ABSTRACT: One of the most unanimous results of the economic literature is that innovation is a critical factor for sustained growth. Despite this consensus, previous research has not studied the impact of foreign aid devoted to promote developing countries’ innovation capacities. For this reason, this paper analyzes the impact of Official Development Assistance for Science and Technology (ODA-ST) in the period prior to the last international economic recession. The analysis offers five important conclusions for better tailoring aid policies: i) ODA-ST effectively stimulates economic growth; ii) its impact may be higher in countries with low innovation capacities; iii) innovation exerts the strongest impact on growth; iv) income inequalities are an important obstacle for growth; and v) there is a a slow process of divergence in per capita income levels among developing countries. Therefore innovation is confirmed as a strategic “bet” on development, while focusing public foreign aid on enhancing developing countries’ innovation capacities —specially in the least innovative ones— may constitute a “boost” to the effectiveness of aid.