[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucd/wpaper/201907.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Which Wheel Gets the Grease? Constituent Agency and Sub-national World Bank Aid Allocation

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Brazys

    (School of Politics & International Relations, University College Dublin)

  • Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati

    (School of Politics & International Relations, University College Dublin)

  • Tianyang Song

    (School of Politics & International Relations, University College Dublin)

Abstract
Questions of aid allocation have long focused on discerning the altruistic, self-interested or meritocratic motivation of development donors. Less attention has been paid to the interests and agency of recipient state governments and even less to the interests and agency of constituencies within those states. An implicit assumption is often that the “poor” either passively receive the patronage of their benefactors or they don’t. In this paper, we instead suggest that depending on the altruism/egoism of a donor, their sensitivity to needy subnational constituencies in aid allocation also depends on the political empowerment of those groups. In particular, we take advantage of the unique socio-cultural structure in India to examine if the political agency of scheduled castes and tribes (SC/STs) can explain patterns of district-level allocation of World Bank education aid. Using district-level data on a multi-year World Bank education program, district-level proportions of SC/STs and SC/ST population and of members of parliament, we find that SC/ST districts receive more aid, even when controlling for baseline poverty and educational performance. These results are especially strong when these districts are politically empowered. Our findings suggest that while donors may indeed respond to recipient needs, those recipients who also speak loudly for themselves fare better, highlighting the importance of constituent agency.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Brazys & Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Tianyang Song, 2019. "Which Wheel Gets the Grease? Constituent Agency and Sub-national World Bank Aid Allocation," Working Papers 201907, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ucd.ie/geary/static/publications/workingpapers/gearywp201907.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2019
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fang, Songying & Stone, Randall W., 2012. "International Organizations as Policy Advisors," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(4), pages 537-569, October.
    2. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    3. Paul Clist & Alessia Isopi & Oliver Morrissey, 2012. "Selectivity on aid modality: Determinants of budget support from multilateral donors," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 267-284, September.
    4. Larry L. Howard & Nishith Prakash, 2012. "Do School Lunch Subsidies Change The Dietary Patterns Of Children From Low-Income Households?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(3), pages 362-381, July.
    5. Christopher H. Achen, 2005. "Let's Put Garbage-Can Regressions and Garbage-Can Probits Where They Belong," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(4), pages 327-339, September.
    6. Vera Z. Eichenauer & Simon Hug, 2018. "The politics of special purpose trust funds," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 211-255, July.
    7. Axel Dreher & Sarah Langlotz & Silvia Marchesi, 2017. "Information Transmission And Ownership Consolidation In Aid Programs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1688, October.
    8. Anke Hoeffler & Verity Outram, 2011. "Need, Merit, or Self‐Interest—What Determines the Allocation of Aid?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 237-250, May.
    9. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, 2011. "Why Indian men rebel? Explaining armed rebellion in the northeastern states of India, 1970-2007," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 48(5), pages 605-619, September.
    10. Stijn Claessens & Danny Cassimon & Bjorn Van Campenhout, 2009. "Evidence on Changes in Aid Allocation Criteria," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 23(2), pages 185-208, June.
    11. Chin, Aimee & Prakash, Nishith, 2011. "The redistributive effects of political reservation for minorities: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 265-277, November.
    12. World Bank, 2011. "Poverty and Social Exclusion in India," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2289.
    13. Pranab Bardhan & Dilip Mookherjee, 2006. "Decentralisation and Accountability in Infrastructure Delivery in Developing Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 101-127, January.
    14. Carter, Patrick, 2014. "Aid allocation rules," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 132-151.
    15. Jean‐Claude Berthélemy, 2006. "Bilateral Donors’ Interest vs. Recipients’ Development Motives in Aid Allocation: Do All Donors Behave the Same?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 179-194, May.
    16. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, 2006. "Shortcuts and Signals: An Analysis of the Micro‐level Determinants of Aid Allocation, with Case Study Evidence from Brazil," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 297-312, May.
    17. Rainer Thiele & Peter Nunnenkamp & Axel Dreher, 2007. "Do Donors Target Aid in Line with the Millennium Development Goals? A Sector Perspective of Aid Allocation," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 143(4), pages 596-630, December.
    18. Marijn Verhoeven & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta & Mr. Erwin H Tiongson, 1999. "Does Higher Government Spending Buy Better Results in Education and Health Care?," IMF Working Papers 1999/021, International Monetary Fund.
    19. d’Aiglepierre, Rohen & Wagner, Laurent, 2013. "Aid and Universal Primary Education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 95-112.
    20. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1132-1151, September.
    21. Sam Barrett, 2015. "Subnational Adaptation Finance Allocation: Comparing Decentralized and Devolved Political Institutions in Kenya," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 118-139, August.
    22. Nielson, Daniel L. & Tierney, Michael J., 2003. "Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 241-276, April.
    23. repec:bla:devpol:v:23:y:2005:i:6:p:643-663 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Humphrey, Chris & Michaelowa, Katharina, 2013. "Shopping for Development: Multilateral Lending, Shareholder Composition and Borrower Preferences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 142-155.
    25. Hannes Öhler & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2014. "Needs-Based Targeting or Favoritism? The Regional Allocation of Multilateral Aid within Recipient Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 420-446, August.
    26. Kenneth W. Abbott & Duncan Snidal, 1998. "Why States Act through Formal International Organizations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 42(1), pages 3-32, February.
    27. Vera Z. Eichenauer & Bernhard Reinsberg, 2017. "What determines earmarked funding to international development organizations? Evidence from the new multi-bi aid data," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 171-197, June.
    28. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes & Sosa Andrés, Maximiliano, 2012. "Need, merit, and politics in multilateral aid allocation: A district-level analysis of World Bank projects in India," Kiel Working Papers 1783, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    29. Axel Dreher & Peter Nunnenkamp & Rainer Thiele, 2008. "Does Aid for Education Educate Children? Evidence from Panel Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(2), pages 291-314, April.
    30. Dreher, Axel & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Vreeland, James Raymond, 2009. "Development aid and international politics: Does membership on the UN Security Council influence World Bank decisions?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-18, January.
    31. Haley J. Swedlund, 2017. "Can foreign aid donors credibly threaten to suspend aid? Evidence from a cross-national survey of donor officials," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 454-496, May.
    32. Younas, Javed, 2008. "Motivation for bilateral aid allocation: Altruism or trade benefits," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 661-674, September.
    33. Toke S. Aidt & Raphaël Franck, 2015. "Democratization Under the Threat of Revolution: Evidence From the Great Reform Act of 1832," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 505-547, March.
    34. Deon Filmer & Lant Pritchett, 2001. "Estimating Wealth Effects Without Expenditure Data—Or Tears: An Application To Educational Enrollments In States Of India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(1), pages 115-132, February.
    35. Rahman, Md Saifur & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Formal and Informal Interests of Donors to Allocate Aid: Spending Patterns of USAID, GIZ, and EU Forest Development Policy in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 250-267.
    36. Mr. Emanuele Baldacci & Mr. Larry Q Cui & Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2004. "Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries: Implications for Achieving the MDGs," IMF Working Papers 2004/217, International Monetary Fund.
    37. Dollar, David & Levin, Victoria, 2006. "The Increasing Selectivity of Foreign Aid, 1984-2003," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2034-2046, December.
    38. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    39. Bermeo, Sarah Blodgett, 2017. "Aid Allocation and Targeted Development in an Increasingly Connected World," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 735-766, October.
    40. Helen Milner & Dustin Tingley, 2013. "The choice for multilateralism: Foreign aid and American foreign policy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 313-341, September.
    41. Gadde OMPRASAD, 2016. "From Project Based Lending to Policy Based Lending: An Evaluation of Structural Adjustment Lending Policy of World Bank," Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, KSP Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 56-62, March.
    42. Galasso, Emanuela & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Decentralized targeting of an antipoverty program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 705-727, April.
    43. Samuel Rueckert Brazys, 2013. "Evidencing donor heterogeneity in Aid for Trade," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 947-978, August.
    44. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai & David Hulme, 2015. "The Politics of Regional Inequality in Ghana: State Elites, Donors and PRSPs," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 33(5), pages 529-553, September.
    45. Stubbs, Thomas H. & Kentikelenis, Alexander E. & King, Lawrence P., 2016. "Catalyzing Aid? The IMF and Donor Behavior in Aid Allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 511-528.
    46. Paul Bezerra & Alex Braithwaite, 2016. "Locating foreign aid commitments in response to political violence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 333-355, December.
    47. Steve Radelet, 2006. "A Primer on Foreign Aid," Working Papers 92, Center for Global Development.
    48. Briggs, Ryan C., 2014. "Aiding and Abetting: Project Aid and Ethnic Politics in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 194-205.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axel Dreher & Sarah Langlotz & Silvia Marchesi, 2017. "Information Transmission And Ownership Consolidation In Aid Programs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1688, October.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Aid effectiveness and donor motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Donaubauer, Julian & Meyer, Birgit & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2016. "Aid, Infrastructure, and FDI: Assessing the Transmission Channel with a New Index of Infrastructure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 230-245.
    4. Rudolph, Alexandra, 2017. "The concept of SDG-sensitive development cooperation: implications for OECD-DAC members," IDOS Discussion Papers 1/2017, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Breßlein, Martin & Schmaljohann, Maya, 2013. "Surrender your market! Do the G5 countries use World Bank Trade Conditionality to promote Trade?," Working Papers 0550, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    6. Hannes Öhler & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2014. "Needs-Based Targeting or Favoritism? The Regional Allocation of Multilateral Aid within Recipient Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 420-446, August.
    7. Barthel, Fabian & Neumayer, Eric & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Selaya, Pablo, 2014. "Competition for Export Markets and the Allocation of Foreign Aid: The Role of Spatial Dependence among Donor Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 350-365.
    8. Yasemin Bal Gündüz & Masyita Crystallin, 2018. "Do IMF programs catalyze donor assistance to low-income countries?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 359-393, September.
    9. Sumida, Sugata, 2017. "Donor’s motivation of the educational aid," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 17-29.
    10. Stubbs, Thomas H. & Kentikelenis, Alexander E. & King, Lawrence P., 2016. "Catalyzing Aid? The IMF and Donor Behavior in Aid Allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 511-528.
    11. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes & Sosa Andrés, Maximiliano, 2012. "Need, merit, and politics in multilateral aid allocation: A district-level analysis of World Bank projects in India," Kiel Working Papers 1783, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    12. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    13. Lauren L. Ferry & Emilie M. Hafner-Burton & Christina J. Schneider, 2020. "Catch me if you care: International development organizations and national corruption," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 767-792, October.
    14. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes, 2011. "Aid Allocation through Various Official and Private Channels: Need, Merit, and Self-Interest as Motives of German Donors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 308-323, March.
    15. Axel Dreher & Peter Nunnenkamp & Maya Schmaljohann, 2015. "The Allocation of German Aid: Self-interest and Government Ideology," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 160-184, March.
    16. Brech, Viktor & Potrafke, Niklas, 2014. "Donor ideology and types of foreign aid," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 61-75.
    17. Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2015. "Foreign Aid Responses to Political Liberalization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 46-61.
    18. Elisabeth Lio Rosvold, 2020. "Disaggregated determinants of aid: Development aid projects in the Philippines," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(6), pages 783-803, November.
    19. Francesca G. Caselli & Andrea F. Presbitero, 2020. "Aid Effectiveness in Fragile States," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 158, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    20. Mohamed Mounir Sraieb, 2015. "An Empirical Model for U.S. Foreign Aid Allocation," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2015-48, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201907. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Geary Tech (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geucdie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.