Does technical assistance alleviate energy poverty in sub-Saharan African countries? A new perspective on spatial spillover effects of technical assistance

The sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region gathers the most vulnerable countries, which are criss-crossed geographi-cally, making SSA countries extremely vulnerable to the influence of neighbouring countries. However, very few studies have considered the spillover effect of technical assistance in the recipient country. To fill the research gap, a dynamic space Dubin approach based on an asymmetric space weight matrix was developed. The results show the Moran's I value of technical assistance is positive, indicating that there is a positive correlation in space. Technical assistance is not unconditional free help, but with the strong subjective will of donor countries. SDM's estimation results show that the coefficient of the space lag term is greater than the coefficient of the time lag term, indicating that the spatial spillover effect can promote the power development of the recipient country more than the path dependence effect. Technical assistance to neighbouring countries can only improve the power development of the target country in the short term. In the long run, the mismatch effect of aid resources from neighbouring countries inhibits the power development of recipient countries. Therefore, technical assis-tance should be integrated with the situation of the recipient country in order to reduce energy poverty more effectively.

Automated summary

The sub-Saharan Africa region is vulnerable to the influence of neighboring countries due to its geographic location, yet little research has considered the spillover effect of technical assistance in the recipient country. A dynamic space Dubin approach based on an asymmetric space weight matrix was developed to fill this research gap. The results show that there is a positive correlation in space, indicating a spatial spillover effect that can promote the power development of the recipient country.