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Does private aid follow the flag? An empirical analysis of humanitarian assistance

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  • Fuchs, Andreas
  • Öhler, Hannes

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".

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  • Fuchs, Andreas & Öhler, Hannes, 2019. "Does private aid follow the flag? An empirical analysis of humanitarian assistance," Kiel Working Papers 2128, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2128
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    3. Kaplan, Lennart, 2020. "Systemic challenges and opportunities of Franco-German development cooperation," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    foreign aid; humanitarian assistance; disaster relief; aid allocation; private donors; non-governmental organizations; corporations; private foundations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H84 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Disaster Aid
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F59 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Other

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