The Developing Mortality Fiasco
**Note that this paper was written when I was in my sophomore year of college. It is not meant to be representative of my research skills, but rather, a benchmark for how far my research skills have come since then.
ABSTRACT:
In this study, I investigate the effect of net development aid on various developmental metrics in developing countries. I conduct a thorough examination of the current developmental literature as it relates to net development aid. I provide three statistical models, each utilized in their capacity to reduce heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, or endogeneity. While these estimates may still suffer from a certain degree of endogeneity, the direction of the exogenous regressors is consistent with the developmental literature and is likely consistent with the true nature of the variables. The key findings of this study are that the efficacy of net development aid is being partially drowned out by foreign corporate penetration; additionally, the US economy, and by extension globalization, has a greater effect on developmental indicators than previously acknowledged. I provide a general framework for increasing the efficacy of net development aid, building off the ideas presented in Easterly (2006). Coalescing a searcher mindset with the statistical ideas presented in this paper and the developmental literature may be the only way to truly ameliorate the developing mortality fiasco.
