Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid

Boone, P. (1995) Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid. CEPDP (272). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK. ISBN 0753003252

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Abstract

Critics of foreign aid programs have long argued that poverty reflects government failure. In this paper I analyze the effectiveness of foreign aid programs to gain insights into political regimes in aid recipient countries. My analytical framework shows how three stylized political/economic regimes labeled egalitarian, elitist and laissez-faire would use foreign aid. I then test reduced form equations using data on nonmilitary aid flows to 96 countries. I find that models of elitist political regimes best predict the impact of foreign aid. Aid does not significantly increase investment and growth, nor benefit the poor as measured by improvements in human development indicators, but it does increase the size of government. I also find that the impact of aid does not vary according to whether recipient governments are liberal democracies or highly repressive. But liberal political regimes and democracies, ceteris paribus, have on average 30% lower infant mortality than the least free regimes. This may be due to greater empowerment of the poor under liberal regimes eve though the political elite continues to receive the benefits of aid programs. An implication is that short term aid targeted to support new liberal regimes may be a more successful means of reducing poverty than current programs.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk
Additional Information:	© 1995 P. Boone
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2008 15:07
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 19:36
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/20690

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