IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/padxxx/v45y2025i1p43-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

U.S. foreign aid: Marketization, social responsibility, and economic returns

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Mendez

Abstract

Aid has become a powerful asset for marketizing a donor's reputation under the guise of social responsibility. By fostering goodwill through capitalizing on their image as “good” donors, states enhance their competitive stance in global affairs over time. This paper examines U.S. foreign aid within the frameworks of social responsibility and the interplay between aid and trade. It assesses the policy gains the U.S. acquires through aid marketization, analyzing commercial returns from aid to 39 countries over 22 years. Employing the gravity equation and a Two‐Stage Least Square (2SLS) method with an instrumental variable approach, the research uncovers significant economic benefits. Findings reveal that U.S. foreign aid increases U.S. exports, with an average return of $8 in exports for every additional dollar spent on aid. This highlights the dual function of foreign aid in building goodwill and generating economic returns, particularly in the context of U.S. foreign policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Mendez, 2025. "U.S. foreign aid: Marketization, social responsibility, and economic returns," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(1), pages 43-55, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:padxxx:v:45:y:2025:i:1:p:43-55
    DOI: 10.1002/pad.2075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.2075
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pad.2075?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:padxxx:v:45:y:2025:i:1:p:43-55. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0271-2075 .

    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.