Aid for Trade Flows and Recipient-Countries’ Integration into the World Market for Services Exports: Do Merchandises Exports and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows Matter?

An important literature on the recipient-countries’ export performance effect of Aid for Trade (AfT) flows has focused on the goods side. The few existing studies on the services exports effects of AfT interventions have reached mixed results, reflecting a positive or weak effect. This study aims to complement these few studies by examining the effect of AfT flows on recipient-countries’ share of services exports in the world services exports (‘services export integration’), including through two main channels: their share of merchandises exports in the world merchandises exports (‘merchandises export integration’) and the size of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows. The empirical analysis, based on a sample of 105 countries over the period 2002–2016, has shown that these two channels definitely matter for the effect of AfT flows on countries’ services export integration. Specifically, by fostering countries’ merchandises export integration, AfT flows can promote their services export integration. Furthermore, promoting FDI inflows enhances the positive effect of AfT flows on countries’ services export integration.