Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52825 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2003/49
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
There is a widespread view that political criteria have received less emphasis in aid allocation since the end of the cold war, with a greater share of aid subsequently being based on developmental criteria. An observed increase in aid effectiveness is attributed to this shift. A reasonably large literature on aid allocation supports this view: a number of influential, widely cited studies conclude that developmental criteria played no role in the 1970s and 1980s inter-recipient aid allocation. This paper argues that the shift is not as significant as commonly thought. It points to a number of methodological weaknesses in the dominant modelling approach used within the literature, showing that more rigorous econometric methods suggest that developmental criteria have had a larger influence on cold war period aid allocation than previously thought. An alternative interpretation of the observed increase in aid effectiveness is provided.
Subjects: 
aid allocation
donor interest
recipient need
Tobit models
regression
JEL: 
F34
C24
C21
C12
I31
ISBN: 
9291904856
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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