IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v39y2011i11p1969-1980.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Rise (and Decline?) of Arab Aid: Generosity and Allocation in the Oil Era

Author

Listed:
  • Shushan, Debra
  • Marcoux, Christopher

Abstract

Among non-DAC donors, wealthy Arab states are some of the most prolific contributors of foreign aid. Despite this, relatively little is known about Arab foreign aid. The OECD development database offers a paucity of information, aggregating data for “Arab countries” and “Arab agencies,” without identifying the constituent units of either. A further complication is that Arab donors are not uniformly transparent about their aid efforts, publicizing some of them while keeping other donations secret. In this paper, we advance the state of knowledge of Arab foreign aid in a number of ways. We use AidData to document the trends in reported donations from specific bilateral donors (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) and multilateral agencies (Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, OPEC’s Fund for International Development, and the Islamic Development Bank). Notably, Arab bilateral donors have given less generously over time with aid levels remaining relatively stable despite skyrocketing national wealth. We explore reasons for this decline, including that Arab donors have: shifted their giving from bilateral to multilateral channels, given less as DAC donors have given more, and increased domestic spending at the expense of foreign aid with a view to safeguarding regime security. In addition, we look at the sectoral allocations of Arab bilateral and multilateral organizations, and compare the aid practices of Arab donors to their DAC counterparts. Finally, we suggest why an exclusive focus on aid commitments is problematic where Arab aid is concerned.

Suggested Citation

  • Shushan, Debra & Marcoux, Christopher, 2011. "The Rise (and Decline?) of Arab Aid: Generosity and Allocation in the Oil Era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1969-1980.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:11:p:1969-1980
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11002002
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.025?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. Eric Neumayer, 2003. "What Factors Determine the Allocation of Aid by Arab Countries and Multilateral Agencies?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 134-147.
    2. Mr. P. van den Boogaerde, 1991. "Financial Assistance from Arab Countries and Arab Regional Institutions," IMF Occasional Papers 1991/012, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Eric Neumayer, 2004. "Arab‐related Bilateral and Multilateral Sources of Development Finance: Issues, Trends, and the Way Forward," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 281-300, February.
    4. AfDB AfDB, . "AfDB Group Annual Report 2007," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 63 edited by Koua Louis Kouakou.
    5. R. S. Porter, 1986. "Arab Economic Aid," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 4(1), pages 44-68, March.
    6. World Bank, 2010. "World Development Indicators 2010," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4373.
    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. Vijaya Ramachandran, Julie Walz, 2011. "Brave New World: A Literature Review of Emerging Donors and the Changing Nature of Foreign Assistanc- Working Paper 273," Working Papers 273, Center for Global Development.
    2. Hernandez, Diego & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2017. "Politics of religiously motivated lending: An empirical analysis of aid allocation by the Islamic Development Bank," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 910-929.
    3. Fuchs, Andreas & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2013. "The Needy Donor: An Empirical Analysis of India’s Aid Motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 110-128.
    4. Miles Kellerman, 2019. "The proliferation of multilateral development banks," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 107-145, March.
    5. Hernandez , Diego & Vadlamannati , Krishna Chaitanya, 2014. "Politics of Religiously Motivated Lending: An Empirical Analysis of Aid Allocation by the Islamic Development Bank," Working Papers 0570, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.

    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. Eric Neumayer, 2004. "Arab‐related Bilateral and Multilateral Sources of Development Finance: Issues, Trends, and the Way Forward," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 281-300, February.
    2. Barakat, Sultan & Zyck, Steven A., 2010. "Gulf state assistance to conflict-affected environments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55240, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 180-207.
    4. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer, 2010. "Are 'new' donors different? Comparing the allocation of bilateral aid between non-DAC and DAC donor," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 96, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    5. Angelika J. Budjan & Andreas Fuchs, 2021. "Democracy and Aid Donorship," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 217-238, November.
    6. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer, 2011. "Are ‘New’ Donors Different? Comparing the Allocation of Bilateral Aid Between nonDAC and DAC Donor Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1950-1968.
    7. Faizal Z. Ahmed & Eric Werker, 2012. "Unobserved State Fragility and the Political Transfer Problem," Harvard Business School Working Papers 13-009, Harvard Business School.
    8. Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2017-011, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Arbatli, Cemal Eren & Gomtsyan, David, 2021. "Sectarian aid, sanctions and subnational development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Axel Dreher & Andreas Fuchs, 2015. "Rogue aid? An empirical analysis of China's aid allocation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(3), pages 988-1023, August.
    11. Ahmed, Faisal Z. & Schwab, Daniel & Werker, Eric, 2021. "The political transfer problem: How cross-border financial windfalls affect democracy and civil war," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 313-339.
    12. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Parks, Bradley & Strange, Austin M. & Tierney, Michael J., 2016. "Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa," Working Papers 0620, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    13. Fuchs, Andreas & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2013. "The Needy Donor: An Empirical Analysis of India’s Aid Motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 110-128.
    14. Axel Dreher & Peter Nunnenkamp & Rainer Thiele, 2010. "Are 'New' Donors Different?," KOF Working papers 10-255, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    15. Hernandez, Diego & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2017. "Politics of religiously motivated lending: An empirical analysis of aid allocation by the Islamic Development Bank," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 910-929.
    16. Eric Werker & Faisal Z. Ahmed & Charles Cohen, 2009. "How Is Foreign Aid Spent? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 225-244, July.
    17. Hernandez , Diego & Vadlamannati , Krishna Chaitanya, 2014. "Politics of Religiously Motivated Lending: An Empirical Analysis of Aid Allocation by the Islamic Development Bank," Working Papers 0570, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    18. Li, Aijun & Du, Nan & Wei, Qian, 2014. "The cross-country implications of alternative climate policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 155-163.
    19. Das Gupta, Monica & Bongaarts, John & Cleland, John, 2011. "Population, poverty, and sustainable development : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5719, The World Bank.
    20. Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda, 2012. "Targeted Subsidies and Private Market Participation: An Assessment of Fertilizer Demand in Nigeria:," IFPRI discussion papers 1194, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    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:1969-1980. 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.