My paper investigates a sample of the disaggregated data on developmental aid from the DAC countries. Adding all of the subcategories to the data analysis may give a better picture of how specific types of aid may change individuals’ decisions to migrate. Notice that some of the results in the Categorized and Uncategorized regressions are inconsistent. For example, in period 2, Social Infrastructure and Services aid is not statistically significant. However, its subcategories, Education and Water, depict a statistically significant negative relationship with migrant stock. The incorporation of more subcategories say, Healthcare, may provide more evidence about the most effective types of aid in this category.
My analysis looks at potential factors which can be effective in promoting welfare in origin countries in curtailing migration over many countries and aid types but does not offer evidence on how to tailor solutions to specific situations, an area where more work can be done. A theme throughout my analysis is the heterogeneous nature of aid. All aid does not work the same way in all countries and aid does not necessarily always improve the quality of life in origin countries. An interesting extension of this research could be to continue to investigate specific sectors in the context of geographic regions.
Another avenue of research is examining production and economic sectors more in-depth. These two aid types are similar in that they are often distributed to middle income countries. The hypothesis being that perhaps aid cannot help low income countries in the long run, but maybe middle-income countries can use aid to stimulate growth and decrease migration.
The effectiveness of recent policies to manage migration flows has been debated and my paper aimed to explore disaggregated aid further in relation to migration. Social aid effectiveness on curtailing migration was mixed in this analysis. The results show only Water aid decreases migration stocks in destination countries, as Lanati and Thiele predicted. Further an investigation into public services should be done, as there seems to be high variability in the social infrastructure and services category. Production and Economic sector aid are estimated to be the best at reducing migration stocks, but the effects seem varied. These two types of aid are often deployed to well-governed origin countries , so the aid may be deployed more effectively. They also directly contribute to economic opportunity in origin countries, tackling one of the main drivers of aid. Humanitarian aid appears to most frequently have a positive effect on migration stock in destination countries and, in one case, does not have a statistically significant effect. This paper has shown the potential for more research into the aid and migration link, especially at the disaggregated level in shaping migration policy decisions.