The short- and long-term effects of development projects: evidence from Ethiopia

This paper examines the short-term and long-term impact of development projects on recipients’ wellbeing in Ethiopia. Specifically, it compares the effects of five types of development projects – unconditional and conditional direct transfers, agricultural and social-infrastructure knowledge transfers, and credit projects – on children’s nutrition and on household consumption and income levels. The main finding is that knowledge transfers have the largest positive impact on children’s nutritional status and household consumption, in both the short and the long term. The impact of direct transfers on children’s health is also positive but less significant whereas the effect of credit projects is here undetectable.