Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52767 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2003/17
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
The paper reports an empirical study of the factors affecting burden sharing among OECD’s 22 DAC members in ‘bankrolling’ the multilateral aid agencies. These are the UN agencies, World Bank’s IDA and non-IDA programmes, regional development banks, European Community, and other multilateral agencies that include the Global Environmental Facility and the Montreal Protocol on environment. Annual data over 1970-2000, pooled across the donor countries, form the basis for the empirical estimation of each donor’s share in the ODA aid receipts for each multilateral agency. Our findings suggest the existence of reverse exploitation, i.e., the financial burden of the agencies is disproportionally carried by the smaller donors. The study also finds that factors such as inherent donor generosity, donor concern for domestic egalitarianism, and the extent to which donors are pro-poor in their bilateral aid policies have an impact on their readiness to support multilateral agencies financially. Size of the donor government and its budgetary balance positively influence burden sharing of contributions to other multilateral agencies. But neither the phase of economic cycle nor the rate of economic growth affects the burden-sharing responsibility of donors. It was also observed that contributions by EU members to the EC do not appear to crowd-out their contributions to other multilateral aid agencies and that right-wing donor governments are generally more parsimonious with regard to financial assistance to multilateral aid agencies. The preferred alternative, particularly among EU member countries, appears to be the EC.
Subjects: 
burden sharing
ability to pay
exploitation hypothesis
UN agencies
IDA
non-IDA
regional development banks
European Community
Global Environmental Facility
Montreal Protocol
JEL: 
F02
F35
H40
H87
O19
ISBN: 
9291904171
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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