Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/274090 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 121
Publisher: 
Osnabrück University, Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrück
Abstract: 
While illicit capital flight is a major concern of policy makers in developing countries, there is only little research on the possible link between capital flight and development aid. In this paper, we address the issue for Nepal, a stereotypical financially-closed developing economy that is highly dependent on resources from abroad. Distinguishing features of our approach are the use of a narrowly defined proxy of capital flight, based on trade-cost adjusted mirror trade statistics, and the focus on the foreign-exchange cash component of development aid. We document a robust partial correlation between aid and outward capital flight that is economically and statistically significant. Interestingly, this positive correlation is not observable for remittances, an alternative form of foreign-exchange inflows where the capital flight motivation is absent. Furthermore, it is visible in the the FX-cash component but not in broader aid definitions that include in-kind transfers, or in multilateral and IMF loans. Finally, when comparing the subcomponents of export underinvoicing and import overinvoicing, only the latter is driving our results.
Subjects: 
Capital Flight
Development Aid
Remittances
Trade Misinvoicing
JEL: 
F24
F32
F35
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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