IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/107032.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The financial consequences of rating international institutions: competition, collaboration, and the politics of assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Lall, Ranjit

Abstract

The past 15 years have witnessed a striking trend in global governance: the creation of comparative indicators of the performance of international institutions by donor states seeking to allocate their resources more efficiently. Interestingly, however, not all highly rated institutions have been "rewarded"with increased contributions, while not all poorly rated institutions have been "punished"with funding cuts or freezes. I argue that the financial impact of performance indicators is contingent upon the relationship between institutions and other actors within their environment, with stronger effects occurring when institutions (1) are subject to a higher degree of resource competition and (2) possess deeper and more extensive operational alliances with actors above and below the state. I test the argument using a mixed-methods strategy that draws on a variety of original sources, including key informant interviews and a new dataset covering fifty-three institutions over the period 2000-2016. The findings enhance our understanding of when and why comparative performance indicators influence resource flows to assessed entities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lall, Ranjit, 2021. "The financial consequences of rating international institutions: competition, collaboration, and the politics of assessment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107032, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:107032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107032/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Frédéric Morin, 2020. "Concentration despite competition: The organizational ecology of technical assistance providers," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 75-107, January.
    2. Tamar Gutner & Alexander Thompson, 2010. "The politics of IO performance: A framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 227-248, September.
    3. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, 2020. "Death of international organizations. The organizational ecology of intergovernmental organizations, 1815–2015," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 339-370, April.
    4. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    5. Kenneth Abbott & Duncan Snidal, 2010. "International regulation without international government: Improving IO performance through orchestration," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 315-344, September.
    6. Nielson, Daniel L. & Tierney, Michael J., 2003. "Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 241-276, April.
    7. Dietrich, Simone, 2016. "Donor Political Economies and the Pursuit of Aid Effectiveness," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 65-102, January.
    8. Hainmueller, Jens & Mummolo, Jonathan & Xu, Yiqing, 2019. "How Much Should We Trust Estimates from Multiplicative Interaction Models? Simple Tools to Improve Empirical Practice," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 163-192, April.
    9. Abbott, Kenneth W. & Green, Jessica F. & Keohane, Robert O., 2016. "Organizational Ecology and Institutional Change in Global Governance," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 247-277, April.
    10. George E. Mitchell & Sarah S. Stroup, 2017. "The reputations of NGOs: Peer evaluations of effectiveness," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 397-419, September.
    11. Pollack, Mark A., 1997. "Delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the European Community," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 99-134, January.
    12. Kelley, Judith G. & Simmons, Beth A., 2019. "Introduction: The Power of Global Performance Indicators," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(3), pages 491-510, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Yoram Z. Haftel & Tobias Lenz, 2022. "Measuring institutional overlap in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 323-347, April.
    2. Matias E. Margulis, 2021. "Intervention by international organizations in regime complexes," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 871-902, October.
    3. Mintao Nie, 2023. "IOs’ selective adoption of NGO information: Evidence from the Universal Periodic Review," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 27-59, January.
    4. Julia Gray, 2024. "The life cycle of international cooperation: Introduction to the special issue," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 641-664, October.
    5. Bernhard Reinsberg & Oliver Westerwinter, 2023. "Institutional Overlap in Global Governance and the Design of Intergovernmental Organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 693-724, October.
    6. 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.
    7. Manfred Elsig, 2010. "The World Trade Organization at work: Performance in a member-driven milieu," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 345-363, September.
    8. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni & Oliver Westerwinter, 2022. "The global governance complexity cube: Varieties of institutional complexity in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 233-262, April.
    9. Manuel Becker, 2019. "When public principals give up control over private agents: The new independence of ICANN in internet governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 561-576, December.
    10. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    11. Mark Pollack & Emilie Hafner-Burton, 2010. "Mainstreaming international governance: The environment, gender, and IO performance in the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 285-313, September.
    12. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, 2022. "Ordering global governance complexes: The evolution of the governance complex for international civil aviation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 293-322, April.
    13. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s5:p:102-112 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6881 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Ryan Federo & Angel Saz‐Carranza, 2020. "A typology of board design for highly effective monitoring in intergovernmental organizations under the United Nations system," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(2), pages 344-361, April.
    16. Zürn, Michael & Tokhi, Alexandros & Binder, Martin, 2021. "The International Authority Database," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 430-442.
    17. Klaus H. Goetz & Ronny Patz & Bernhard Reinsberg, 2017. "Trust Funds as a Lever of Influence at International Development Organizations," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 85-95, August.
    18. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s5:p:15-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Gigout, Timothee, 2019. "Firm dynamics in an global and uncertain economy," MPRA Paper 96569, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    20. Charles B. Roger & Sam S. Rowan, 2022. "Analyzing international organizations: How the concepts we use affect the answers we get," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 597-625, July.
    21. Michal Parízek, 2017. "Control, soft information, and the politics of international organizations staffing," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 559-583, December.
    22. Toke S. Aidt & Romola J. Davenport & Felix Gray, 2023. "New perspectives on the contribution of sanitary investments to mortality decline in English cities, 1845–1909," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 624-660, May.
    23. Klaus H. Goetz & Ronny Patz & Erin R. Graham, 2017. "Follow the Money: How Trends in Financing Are Changing Governance at International Organizations," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 15-25, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    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:ehl:lserod:107032. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.