IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v39y2011i11p1918-1929.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Money Trail: Ranking Donor Transparency in Foreign Aid

Author

Listed:
  • Ghosh, Anirban
  • Kharas, Homi

Abstract

Transparency of aid activity is being recognized to be one of the key areas whereby aid effectiveness can be improved. In this paper, we propose an index to measure and rank donors on the transparency of their aid activities. The Transparency Index rates 31 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies on six measures of transparency. We find that being a member of the IATI is a powerful signal of a donor being more transparent across most other dimensions as well. We find no relationship between transparency and donor aid volumes. Overall IDA and Australia are identified as the most transparent donors, while Korea and IDB Special Fund are the least transparent.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghosh, Anirban & Kharas, Homi, 2011. "The Money Trail: Ranking Donor Transparency in Foreign Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1918-1929.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:11:p:1918-1929
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11002014
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Easterly & Tobias Pfutze, 2008. "Where Does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Aid," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 29-52, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bernhard Reinsberg & Haley Swedlund, 2023. "How transparent are aid agencies to their citizens? Introducing the Citizen Aid Transparency Dataset," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 2177-2212, October.
    2. Liya Palagashvili & Claudia R. Williamson, 2021. "Grading foreign aid agencies: Best practices across traditional and emerging donors," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 654-676, May.
    3. Gordon D Cumming, 2017. "A Prototypical Case in the Making? Challenging Comparative Perspectives on French Aid," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 19-36, January.
    4. Wako, Hassen, 2016. "Aid, institutions and economic growth: Heterogeneous parameters and heterogeneous donors," MERIT Working Papers 2016-009, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Sebastian Haug & Jack Taggart, 2024. "Global Development Governance 2.0: Fractured accountabilities in a divided governance complex," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(1), pages 128-134, February.
    6. Joel Atkinson, 2018. "The real East Asian Aid model: Development assistance as an instrument of comprehensive security in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(3), pages 265-284, May.
    7. Michener, Gregory, 2015. "Policy Evaluation via Composite Indexes: Qualitative Lessons from International Transparency Policy Indexes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 184-196.
    8. Fahmida Khatun & Syed Yusuf Saadat & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "FINANCE FOR SDGs: Addressing Governance Challenge of Aid Utilisation in Bangladesh," CPD Working Paper 125, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    9. Katharina Michaelowa & Axel Michaelowa & Bernhard Reinsberg & Igor Shishlov, 2020. "Do Multilateral Development Bank Trust Funds Allocate Climate Finance Efficiently?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    10. Yanguas, Pablo & Hulme, David, 2015. "Barriers to Political Analysis in Aid Bureaucracies: From Principle to Practice in DFID and the World Bank," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 209-219.

    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. Uchenna Efobi & Simplice Asongu & Ibukun Beecroft, 2018. "Aid, Terrorism, and Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Insight Conditioned on Corruption Control," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 610-630, October.
    2. Kimura, Hidemi & Mori, Yuko & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2012. "Aid Proliferation and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-10.
    3. Emmanuelle Auriol & Josepa Miquel-Florensa, 2019. "Taxing fragmented aid to improve aid efficiency," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 453-477, September.
    4. Knack, Stephen, 2013. "Aid and donor trust in recipient country systems," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 316-329.
    5. Marson, Marta & Savin, Ivan, 2022. "Complementary or adverse? Comparing development results of official funding from China and traditional donors in Africa," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 189-206.
    6. EFOBI Uchenna & NNADI Matthias, 2015. "How Does Foreign Aid Affect the Relationship between IFRS Adoption and Foreign Direct Investment?," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/014, African Governance and Development Institute..
    7. Patrick Guillaumont & Phu Nguyen-Van & Thi Kim Cuong Pham & Laurent Wagner, 2015. "Efficient and fair allocation of aid," Working Papers of BETA 2015-10, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    8. Pedro Rey-Biel & Roman Sheremeta & Neslihan Uler, 2018. "When Income Depends on Performance and Luck: The Effects of Culture and Information on Giving," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experimental Economics and Culture, volume 20, pages 167-203, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    9. Fenske, James, 2010. "Institutions in African history and development: A review essay," MPRA Paper 23120, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    11. Victor I. Espinosa & Miguel A. Alonso Neira & Jesús Huerta de Soto, 2021. "Principles of Sustainable Economic Growth and Development: A Call to Action in a Post-COVID-19 World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    12. Bigsten, Arne & Tengstam, Sven, 2015. "International Coordination and the Effectiveness of Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 75-85.
    13. Hartmann, Simon, 2011. "Political constraints on division of labor in development policy across countries: A proposal for a more viable coordination procedure at the EU level," Working Papers 28, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    14. Easterly, William & Williamson, Claudia R., 2011. "Rhetoric versus Reality: The Best and Worst of Aid Agency Practices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1930-1949.
    15. Fuchs, Andreas & Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2014. "Determinants of Donor Generosity: A Survey of the Aid Budget Literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 172-199.
    16. Jinyang Cai & Zuting Zheng & Ruifa Hu & Carl E. Pray & Qianqian Shao, 2018. "Has International Aid Promoted Economic Growth in Africa?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 30(3), pages 239-251, September.
    17. 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.
    18. Katarzyna Andrzejczak & Agata Kliber, 2015. "The Model of French Development Assistance – Who Gets the Help?," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 15, pages 89-109.
    19. Fiedler, Charlotte, 2015. "Towers of strength in turbulent times? Assessing the effectiveness of international support to peace and democracy in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of interethnic violence," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    20. Bodenstein, Thilo & Kemmerling, Achim, 2015. "A Paradox of Redistribution in International Aid? The Determinants of Poverty-Oriented Development Assistance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 359-369.

    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:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:11:p:1918-1929. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.