Publications

01 Mar 2014
News

Faculty Q&A: The Future of Foreign Aid

promoter of development? Foreign investment will play a small part, possibly a catalytic one, but at the end of the day, countries will get richer due to the activity of their domestic private sector. That said, to a large extent,... View Details

Keywords: foreign aid; Government

October 2006
Article

How Much Is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations

By: Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric D. Werker

Ten of the fifteen seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. We find that a country's U.S. aid increases by 59 percent and its U.N. aid by 8 percent when it rotates onto the council. This effect increases during years in... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Aid; Governance; Value

2012
Chapter

The Political Economy of Foreign Aid, Bilateral

By: E. Werker

Despite its developmental justification, aid is deeply political. This paper examines the political economy of aid allocation first from the perspective of the donor country, and then the political economy of aid receipt and implementation from the perspective of the... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Aid; Bilateral Foreign Aid; Political Economy; International Finance; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Economics

21 Oct 2010
News

D.I.Y. Foreign Aid

Keywords: hygiene; Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance; Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

How Is Foreign Aid Spent?

We use oil price fluctuations to test the impact of transfers from wealthy OPEC nations to their poorer Muslim allies. The instrument identifies plausibly exogenous variation in foreign aid. We investigate how aid is spent by tracking its short-run effect on... View Details

04 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Political Economy of Bilateral Foreign Aid

June – July 2008
Article

A Better Approach to Foreign Aid

By: Justin Muzinich and Eric D. Werker

Frustration with U.S. foreign aid is widespread. At the same time, flows of private development finance—including foreign direct investment and remittances—have begun to dwarf official aid. We suggest a new approach that harnesses the power of private development... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Foreign Direct Investment; International Relations; Taxation; Welfare or Wellbeing; United States

Research Summary

The Political Economy of Bilateral Foreign Aid

Despite its developmental justification, aid is deeply political. This paper examines the political economy of aid allocation first from the perspective of the donor country, and then the political economy of aid receipt and implementation from the perspective of... View Details

05 Oct 2013
News

The Returns on Foreign Aid Investment

2007
Working Paper

How Is Foreign Aid Spent? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

By: Eric D. Werker, Faisal Z. Ahmed and Charles Cohen

We use oil price fluctuations to construct a new instrument to test the impact of transfers from wealthy OPEC nations to their poorer Muslim allies. The instrument identifies plausibly exogenous variation in foreign aid. We investigate how aid is spent by tracking its... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Asia

15 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

How is Foreign Aid Spent? Evidence from a Compelling Natural Experiment

Keywords: by Eric Werker, Faisal Z. Ahmed & Charles Cohen

September 2011 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Pakistan: Is Foreign Aid Helping or Hindering Development?

By: Aldo Musacchio, Ada Chu, Shahnawaz Nawabi, Jonathan Schlefer and Emil Staykov

Keywords: Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Foreign Direct Investment; Pakistan

Educators

Purchase

01 Jan 1978
Conference Presentation

United States Aid and Foreign Direct Investment in Egypt

By: L. T. Wells Jr.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; International Finance; United States; Egypt

November 2021
Article

The Nixon Doctrine and the Making of Authoritarianism in Island Southeast Asia

By: Mattias Fibiger

This article argues that the Nixon Doctrine was an instrument of authoritarianization in island Southeast Asia. It traces the formulation of the Nixon Doctrine and its implementation through foreign aid decisions, revealing that President Richard Nixon and his chief... View Details

Keywords: Diplomacy; Foreign Aid; Authoritarianism; Geopolitics; Nixon; International Relations; Policy; History; Southeast Asia; United States

15 Aug 2016
News

Entrepreneurship Needs to Be a Bigger Part of U.S. Foreign Aid

12 Dec 2010
News

Would-be Haitian contractors miss out on aid

2006
Working Paper

How Much Is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations

By: Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric D. Werker

05 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Risky Business? Protecting Foreign Investments

Foreign investment in developing countries has always involved an element of risk. Just ask Verizon Communications, which could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuela should President Hugo Chávez follow through with plans... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities

2015
Article

Aid and the Rise and Fall of Conflict in the Muslim World

By: Faisal Z Ahmed and Eric D. Werker

The conflict following the Arab Spring is not the first wave of civil war in the Muslim world in recent time. From the mid-1980s to the end of the century, an average of one in 10 predominantly Muslim countries experienced violent civil war in any given year. We... View Details

Keywords: War; International Relations; Religion; Energy Sources