Aid and Development: The Mozambican Case

This paper considers the relationship between external aid and development in Mozambique from 1980 to 2004. The main objective is to identify the specific mechanisms through which aid has influenced the developmental trajectory of the country and whether one can plausibly link outcomes to aid inputs. We take as our point of departure a growth accounting analysis and review both intended and unintended effects of aid. Mozambique has benefited from sustained aid inflows in conflict, post-conflict and reconstruction periods. In each of these phases aid has made an unambiguous, positive contribution both enabling and supporting rapid growth since 1992. At the same time, the proliferation of donors and aid-supported interventions has burdened local administration and there is a distinct need to develop government accountability to its own citizens rather than donor agencies. In ensuring sustained future growth, Mozambique will have to develop its capacity to maximise the benefits from its natural resources while ensuring at the same time the necessary framework is put in place to promote constructive integration in international markets.Mozambique; foreign aid; development

Aid and Growth: Have We Come Full Circle?

The micro-macro paradox has been revived. Despite broadly positive evaluations at the micro and meso-levels, recent literature has turned decidedly pessimistic with respect to the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth. Policy implications, such as the complete cessation of aid to Africa, are being drawn on the basis of fragile evidence. This paper first assesses the aid-growth literature with a focus on recent contributions. The aid-growth literature is then framed, for the first time, in terms of the Rubin Causal Model, applied at the macroeconomic level. Our results show that aid has a positive and statistically significant causal effect on growth over the long run with point estimates at levels suggested by growth theory. We conclude that aid remains an important tool for enhancing the development prospects of poor nations.foreign aid, growth, aid effectiveness, causal effects

Aid and Growth: Have We Come Full Circle?

The micro-macro paradox has been revived. Despite broadly positive evaluations at the micro and meso-levels, recent literature has turned decidedly pessimistic with respect to the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth. Policy implications, such as the complete cessation of aid to Africa, are being drawn on the basis of fragile evidence. This paper first assesses the aid-growth literature with a focus on recent contributions. The aid-growth literature is then framed, for the first time, in terms of the Rubin Causal Model, applied at the macroeconomic level. Our results show that aid has a positive and statistically significant causal effect on growth over the long run with point estimates at levels suggested by growth theory. We conclude that aid remains an important tool for enhancing the development prospects of poor nations.foreign aid; growth; aid effectiveness; causal effects

Building an auditory lexicon

The ability to form mental representations of word sounds is central to language comprehension and production, and provides the basis of grammatical development and literacy. However, this process remains poorly understood. The five empirical studies presented in this thesis address open questions related to the formation and use of word sound memories. Chapter four presents a meta-analysis of studies using the auditory lexical decision task to measure the quality of word sound representations in typically developing children and children with DLD (developmental language disorder). This chapter also provides baseline data and recommendations of use to both researchers and clinicians. The study presented in chapter five uses Bayesian multi-level regression to model large-scale parental report data from CDI’s (communicative development inventories). This study provides insight into the role that high phonological neighbourhood density plays in early word production, though not comprehension, relative to factors including word length, frequency, concreteness, and relevance to infants. The study in chapter six uses the same methodology to evaluate individual differences in the importance of neighbourhood density as a predictor of word production, and presents results with implications for the development of clinical interventions. The study in chapter seven presents a quantitative corpus analysis examining spoken word accuracy and variability rates in typically developing children recorded over a three-year period. I report the effects of age, frequency, and neighbourhood density on accuracy and variability rates, and argue against the view that such rates may provide a reliable marker of speech sound disorder. Finally, in chapter eight, I present a neural network simulation of the high neighbourhood density learning advantage reported in studies two, three, and four, and present an account of network performance that can also accommodate contradictory behavioural evidence of low-density word learning advantages. All studies are integrated within an exemplar-based framework of auditory-lexical development emphasising the mechanism of analogous generalisation. In the interests of transparency this thesis is accompanied by an online repository containing pre-registration protocols and the data and code required to reproduce each analysis: osf.io/u3qsc

Chemical based communication and its role in decision making within the social insects

This thesis investigates chemical communication and decision making in a stingless bee (Tetragonisca angustula) and two species of ants (Lasius flavus and L. niger). Complex chemical signalling and seemingly elaborate behavioural patterns based upon decisions made by individuals of a colony have facilitated the evolution of social living in these insects. This thesis investigates two important features of social living that involve these features: nest mate recognition and navigation. The first part of this thesis (Chapter 3 and Appendix 3) investigates nestmate recognition and nest defence in the Neotropical stingless bee T. angustula. In Chapter 3, two mechanisms are investigated which could potentially facilitate the extremely efficient nest mate recognition system, previously demonstrated in this bee species. Both are found to play no role which will enable further work to focus on the few remaining possibilities. The second part of this thesis (chapters 4-6) focuses on navigational decision making in two common British ant species with contrasting ecologies. Chapter 4 investigates how L. niger foragers adapt to foraging at night when the visual cues, so important to these ants for diurnal foraging, are unavailable. This study showed that nocturnal foraging is achieved in these ants by increasing trail pheromone deposition while concomitantly switching to a greater reliance on these cues to navigate. Chapter 5 contrasts the navigational strategies and capabilities of L. niger with another Lasius ant species, L. flavus, and demonstrates how these species can flexibly switch dependency between available navigational cues to cope with foraging within a fluxional ecological environment. Finally, Chapter 6 focuses on the glandular components and trail pheromone of L. flavus by measuring behavioural responses to glandular constituents and identifying the glandular source of the trail pheromone. The aim was to also identify the trail pheromone(s) but due to time constraints this was not possible. However, a new methodology that simplifies the process of identifying trail pheromone components was developed and is described. Furthermore, this study has laid the foundations for further work to establish if the compound prevalent in the Dufour glands’ of L. flavus does indeed serve as an antibacterial agent within the humid nest environment

Sam Jones to Walter Lyons

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/lyons/1023/thumbnail.jp

Class size versus class composition:What matters for learning in East Africa?

Raising schooling quality in low-income countries is a pressing challenge. Substantial research has considered the impact of cutting class sizes on skills acquisition. Considerably less attention has been given to the extent to which peer effects, which refer to class composition, also may affect outcomes. This study uses new microdata from East Africa, incorporating test score data for over 250,000 children, to compare the likely efficacy of these two types of interventions. Endogeneity bias is addressed via fixed effects and instrumental variables techniques. Although these may not fully mitigate bias from omitted variables, the preferred IV results indicate considerable negative effects due to larger class sizes and larger numbers of overage-for-grade peers. The latter, driven by the highly prevalent practices of grade repetition and academic redshirting, should be considered an important target for policy interventions