Does Private Aid Follow the Flag? An Empirical Analysis of Humanitarian Assistance

Kiel Working Paper No. 2128. Kiel, Germany: Kiel Institute for the World Economy

59 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2019

See all articles by Andreas Fuchs

Andreas Fuchs

Kiel Institute for the World Economy; University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Hannes Öhler

Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) - German Development Institute (DIE)

Date Written: April 1, 2019

Abstract

Little is known about foreign aid provided by private donors. This paper contributes to closing this research gap by comparing the allocation of private humanitarian aid to that of official humanitarian aid awarded to 140 recipient countries over the 2000-2016 period. We construct a new database that offers information on the country in which the headquarters of private donors are located to test whether private donors follow the aid allocation pattern of their home country. Our empirical results confirm that private aid “follows the flag.” This finding is robust against the inclusion of various fixed effects, estimating instrumental variables models, and disaggregating private aid into corporate aid and NGO aid. Donor country-specific estimations reveal that private aid from China, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States “follow the flag.”

Keywords: foreign aid, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, aid allocation, private donors, non-governmental organizations, corporations, private foundations

JEL Classification: H84, F35, F59

Suggested Citation

Fuchs, Andreas and Fuchs, Andreas and Öhler, Hannes, Does Private Aid Follow the Flag? An Empirical Analysis of Humanitarian Assistance (April 1, 2019). Kiel Working Paper No. 2128. Kiel, Germany: Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3383606 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3383606

Andreas Fuchs (Contact Author)

Kiel Institute for the World Economy ( email )

Kiellinie 66
Kiel, Schleswig-Hosltein 24105
Germany

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Platz der Goettinger Sieben 3
Goettingen, 37073
Germany

Hannes Öhler

Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) - German Development Institute (DIE) ( email )

Tulpenfeld 4
Bonn, 53113
Germany

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