Published May 27, 2026 | Version v1
Peer review Open

Fiscal Capacity and Climate Finance Effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa

Description

Supplementary Materials Description

Fiscal Capacity and Climate Finance Effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa

1. Dataset

The supplementary data file (climate_finance_v3_data_2002_2023.xlsx) contains panel data for 40 Sub-Saharan African countries covering the period 2002 to 2023. The dataset includes 880 country-year observations across 33 variables, structured for replication of all analyses reported in the manuscript.

1.1 Variable Categories

The variables are organised into the following categories:

Category

Variables

Source

Outcome variables

SDG Index, HDI, Resilience Index, Energy Transition Index, Adaptive Capacity Index

Sachs et al. (2024); UNDP (2024); author-constructed

Climate finance

Total climate finance, adaptation finance, mitigation finance (all as % of GDP)

OECD CRS; Climate Funds Update

Fiscal-governance capacity

Fiscal-Governance Capacity Index (composite of tax revenue, government effectiveness, fiscal space, public investment intensity)

IMF GFS; World Bank WGI; WDI

Controls

GDP per capita, population, trade openness, urbanisation, inflation, debt-to-GDP

World Bank WDI; IMF WEO

Interaction terms

Climate finance x fiscal-governance capacity, adaptation x capacity, mitigation x capacity

Author-constructed

Shock variables

Climate shock exposure, climate vulnerability, resource dependence, fragile state indicator

Author-constructed; World Bank

1.2 Key Features of the Dataset

  The Resilience Index (Version 3) excludes the fiscal-governance capacity index to avoid circularity. It is constructed from electricity access (35%), renewable energy (25%), life expectancy (25%), and gross fixed capital formation (15%), normalised to a 0 to 100 scale.

  The Fiscal-Governance Capacity Index is a composite of four standardised components (tax revenue/GDP, government effectiveness, fiscal space, GFCF/GDP), averaged with equal weights and normalised to 0 to 100.

  Climate finance is measured as commitments (not disbursements) expressed as a percentage of recipient GDP, harmonised from OECD CRS and Climate Funds Update data.

  All monetary variables are in constant 2015 USD. Inflation is log-transformed as ln(1 + inflation).

  Missing values in GFCF and public investment are imputed using country-means followed by global means where necessary.

1.3 Coverage

Countries: 40 Sub-Saharan African nations including all major economies (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia) and smaller states (Lesotho, Eswatini, Eritrea). Year range: 2002 to 2023. Panel is unbalanced due to data availability constraints in conflict-affected and small states.

2. Replication Codebook

The replication codebook (replication_codebook_v3.pdf) provides complete Python code to reproduce all analyses in the manuscript. The codebook is organised into sequential sections corresponding to the tables and figures in the paper.

2.1 Structure of the Codebook

Section

Content

Output

1. Setup

Data loading, library imports

Loaded dataset

2. Index construction

Fiscal-governance capacity index construction (z-scores, equal weights, normalisation)

Table 1 descriptive statistics

3. Outcome variables

Resilience index, energy transition index, climate shock exposure

Alternative dependent variables

4. Interactions and lags

Core interaction terms, temporal lags, spatial lag instrument

Variables for all models

5. Main analysis

Pooled OLS, entity fixed effects, two-way fixed effects, IV/2SLS

Tables 2 and 3

6. Mechanisms

Public investment, electricity access, human capital as intermediate outcomes

Table 5 (first three columns)

7. Alternative outcomes

Resilience index and energy transition index regressions

Table 5 (last two columns)

8. Robustness

Winsorised, subsample (post-2010, post-2015, excluding South Africa), non-fragile

Table 7

2.2 Software Requirements

The replication code requires Python 3.8 or later with the following packages: pandas, numpy, statsmodels, linearmodels, and scipy. All packages are open-source and freely available via pip or conda.

2.3 How to Replicate

  Place the data file (climate_finance_v3_data_2002_2023.xlsx) in the working directory.

  Run the code sections sequentially; each section builds on variables created in prior sections.

  Key results are printed to the console with coefficient estimates, standard errors, and significance levels.

  The expected results summary table at the end of the codebook provides benchmark values for verification.

2.4 Notes on the IV Estimation

The IV/2SLS specification instruments climate finance with its first temporal lag and a spatial lag (regional average climate finance excluding the country itself). The first-stage F-statistic of 370.03 exceeds the Stock-Yogo critical value for 10% maximal IV size. The code implements manual 2SLS to avoid collinearity issues that can arise with packaged IV routines when instrumenting interaction terms.

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replication_codebook_v3.pdf

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