Essays on HIV/AIDS and development finance in sub-Saharan Africa

This dissertation investigates three issues. First, it investigates the relationship between Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during the years 1990-2007. Second, it investigates whether or not HIV/AIDS has an immediate effect on inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in low-income, middle-income, oil-producing, and non-oil producing Sub-Saharan African countries during the year 1990-2007. Third, it investigates whether or not bilateral health aid commitments to HIV/AIDS overshadow bilateral health aid commitments to other health issues such as tuberculosis incidence among the HIV-negative population, polio vaccination, and measles vaccination in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1995-2007.;With the aid of static, dynamic, and pooled mean group regressions, this dissertation establishes a significant negative relationship between HIV/AIDS and remittances in low-income countries, middle-income countries and the entire SSA. Other important findings are that the magnitudes of the effect are greater in low-income Sub-Saharan African countries than in middle-income Sub-Saharan African countries, and that remittances have a significant positive relationship with tuberculosis incidence among the HIV-negative population for all groups. However, the empirical analysis reveals that a significant nonlinear relationship exists between FDI and HIV/AIDS in low-income, middle-income, oil-producing and non-oil producing countries. The linear and quadratic terms are positive and negative, respectively. Thus, it suggests that after HIV/AIDS prevalence rates reach a certain threshold, decline in FDI inflows become inevitable.;The hypothesis that there is no donor prioritization for HIV/AIDS over other health issues in SSA was investigated using pooled binary response, censored, static, and dynamic regressions. The findings suggest that the bilateral health aid commitments of the G-7 and Development Assistance Committee countries favor HIV/AIDS over other health issues in SSA. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa receives more bilateral health aid commitments for tuberculosis than HIV/AIDS from the like-minded donor countries, which give more aid to countries with good governance. In summary, high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates have a 'delayed' negative effect on FDI inflows in low-income, middle-income, oil-producing and non-oil producing countries, and are capable of inhibiting remittances as well as facilitating donor prioritization to the detriment of other health issues in SSA.