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Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen? The Division of Financing in World Bank Projects and Project Performance

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  • Matthew S. Winters

    (Department of Political Science, University of Illinois, USA)

Abstract

The total funding envelope for World Bank projects is often divided among various state and non-state actors, each of which can have competing ideas about or interests in the project. How does the division of financing relate to overall project effectiveness? I argue that too many funding streams in a project can reduce project effectiveness by creating delays, increasing transaction costs, and blurring lines of accountability. I combine original data on the number and concentration of financial collaborators in World Bank projects with the World Bank’s ratings of project performance, looking at within-country variation across projects to explore whether or not there is evidence of reduced aid effectiveness in projects with more participants. The results suggest that projects with significant cofinancing receive somewhat worse project ratings.

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  • Matthew S. Winters, 2019. "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen? The Division of Financing in World Bank Projects and Project Performance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 117-126.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:117-126
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Matt Andrews, 2021. "Successful Failure in Public Policy Work," CID Working Papers 402, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    3. Rachel M. Gisselquist & Finn Tarp, 2019. "Aid Impact and Effectiveness: Introduction and Overview," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 1-4.
    4. Mirko Heinzel & Andrea Liese, 2021. "Managing performance and winning trust: how World Bank staff shape recipient performance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 625-653, July.
    5. Seokwoo Kim & Hyuk-Sang Sohn & Jinyoung Lee, 2020. "Evaluating Participation: Empirical Analysis of Recipient and Beneficiary Engagement with IFAD International Development Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Alice Iannantuoni & Charla Waeiss & Matthew S. Winters, 2021. "Project design decisions of egalitarian and non-egalitarian international organizations: Evidence from the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 431-462, April.

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