What We Miss By Missing Data: Aid Effectiveness Revisited (with Anja Breitwieser)

World Development 78: 554-571

Missing data is an issue in many empirical applications, as it may entail efficiency losses as well as biased results. We address these problems within the literature that investigates the effect of foreign aid on welfare. Using multiple imputation techniques to account for the missing data, we find lower aid effectiveness. In addition, imputation allows for comparison of different welfare indicators within the same framework. We find that the respective indicator choice can matter for the ensuing results.