Geopolitics, Aid, and Growth : The Impact of UN Security Council Membership on the Effectiveness of Aid

Dreher, Axel ; Eichenauer, Vera Z. ; Gehring, Kai

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: aid effectiveness;    politics and aid;    united nations;    geopolitics;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7771
RP-ID  :  WPS7771

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The paper investigates the effects ofshort-term political motivations on the effectiveness offoreign aid. Specifically, the paper tests whether theeffect of aid on economic growth is reduced by the share ofyears a country served on the United Nations SecurityCouncil (UNSC) in the period the aid is committed, whichprovides quasi-random variation in aid. The results showthat the effect of aid on growth is significantly lower whenaid was committed during a country's tenure on theUNSC. This holds when we restrict the sample to Africa,which follows the strictest norm of rotation on the UNSC andthus where UNSC membership can most reliably be regarded asexogenous. Two conclusions arise from this. First,short-term political favoritism reduces the effectiveness ofaid. Second, results of studies using political interestvariables as instruments for overall aid arguably estimatethe effect of politically motivated aid and thus a lowerbound for the effect of all aid.