Regional and Ethnic Favoritism in the Allocation of Humanitarian Aid

40 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2018

See all articles by Christian Bommer

Christian Bommer

University of Goettingen (Göttingen)

Axel Dreher

Heidelberg University

Marcello Perez-Alvarez

University of Goettingen (Göttingen)

Date Written: May 14, 2018

Abstract

International humanitarian aid is pivotal in the response to natural disasters suffered by low-and middle-income countries. While its allocation has been shown to be influenced by donors’ foreign policy considerations, power relations within recipient countries have not been addressed. This paper is the first to investigate the role of regional and ethnic favoritism in the formation of humanitarian aid flows. We construct a novel dataset combining information on birth regions of political leaders and the geographic distribution of ethnic groups within countries with high numbers of natural disasters building on census (IPUMS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data. Our results suggest that the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) disburses larger amounts of aid when natural disasters affect the birth region of the countries’ leader. We find some evidence that OFDA disburses aid more frequently to leaders’ birth regions as well as when regions hit by disasters are populated by politically powerful or discriminated ethnicities. Our findings imply that humanitarian aid is not given for humanitarian reasons alone, but also serves elite interests within recipient countries.

Keywords: humanitarian aid, disasters, ethnic favoritism, regional favoritism

JEL Classification: F350

Suggested Citation

Bommer, Christian and Dreher, Axel and Perez-Alvarez, Marcello, Regional and Ethnic Favoritism in the Allocation of Humanitarian Aid (May 14, 2018). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 7038, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3207130 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3207130

Christian Bommer

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) ( email )

Platz der Gottinger Sieben 3
Gottingen, D-37073
Germany

Axel Dreher (Contact Author)

Heidelberg University ( email )

Grabengasse 1
Heidelberg, 69117
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.axel-dreher.de

Marcello Perez-Alvarez

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) ( email )

Platz der Gottinger Sieben 3
Gottingen, D-37073
Germany

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