Aid effectiveness and donor motives

Dreher, A., Lang, V. and Reinsberg, B. (2024) Aid effectiveness and donor motives. World Development, 176, 106501. (doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106501)

Abstract

A vast literature evaluates the effectiveness of development aid, often reaching sobering conclusions. We argue that a key shortcoming of this literature is the focus on a narrow concept of effectiveness—mostly economic growth—that does not match the kind of effectiveness that aid donors actually aim at. To determine actual donor motives, we first survey the literature on aid allocation and identify a large set of motives that is common to many donors. We then employ this set of donor motives for compiling a survey of the aid effectiveness literature by donor motive. The literature shows that while aid has a moderate effect on economic development at best, it seems effective in achieving many of the other effects primarily intended by aid donors. We conclude by speculating that future research on aid effectiveness will be more likely to identify significant effects of aid when taking donor motives into account.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding from UK Research & Innovation (MR/V022148/1) is gratefully acknowledged.
• Keywords: Aid allocation, aid effectiveness, fungibility, donor motives.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Reinsberg, Dr Bernhard

Creator Roles

Reinsberg, B.: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Dreher, A., Lang, V., and Reinsberg, B.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: World Development
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0305-750X
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5991
• Published Online: 15 January 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in World Development 176: 106501
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
311169		Earmarked funding and the effectiveness of international development organizations (EF-IO)	Bernhard Reinsberg	Medical Research Council (MRC)	MR/V022148/1	S&PS - Politics