IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/8861.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Aid and Agency in Africa: Explaining Food Disbursements Across Ethiopian Households, 1994-2004

Author

Listed:
  • Dercon, Stefan
  • Somanathan, Rohini
  • Broussard, Nzinga H

Abstract

We study the distribution of food aid in Ethiopia between 1994 and 2004 using data from the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey. Over this period village leaders had considerable discretion in disbursing aid subject to official guidelines and periodic monitoring. We use a principal-agent model and household panel data for approximately 940 households to understand biases in the allocation of aid. The model shows that correlations between aid and observed measures of need are not a good measure of targeting because agents have incentives to distort allocations within targeted classes. Consistent with the model, we find that the aid recipients match official criteria but disbursements are negatively correlated with determinants of need that are not easily observable by monitoring agencies, namely pre-aid consumption, self-reported power and involvement in village-level organizations. Our results suggest informal structures of power within African villages influence the extent to which food aid insulates some of the world's poorest families from agricultural shocks but also that policy guidelines do constrain permissible deviations from need-based allocations.

Suggested Citation

  • Dercon, Stefan & Somanathan, Rohini & Broussard, Nzinga H, 2012. "Aid and Agency in Africa: Explaining Food Disbursements Across Ethiopian Households, 1994-2004," CEPR Discussion Papers 8861, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8861
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP8861
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Dercon & Daniel O. Gilligan & John Hoddinott & Tassew Woldehanna, 2009. "The Impact of Agricultural Extension and Roads on Poverty and Consumption Growth in Fifteen Ethiopian Villages," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1007-1021.
    2. Lokshin, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Rich and powerful?: Subjective power and welfare in Russia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 141-172, February.
    3. Bet Caeyers & Stefan Dercon, 2012. "Political Connections and Social Networks in Targeted Transfer Programs: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 639-675.
    4. Markus Goldstein & Christopher Udry, 2008. "The Profits of Power: Land Rights and Agricultural Investment in Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 981-1022, December.
    5. Galasso, Emanuela & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Decentralized targeting of an antipoverty program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 705-727, April.
    6. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    7. Stefan Dercon & Pramila Krishnan, 2003. "Risk Sharing and Public Transfers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 86-94, March.
    8. Jayne, Thomas S. & Strauss, John & Yamano, Takashi & Molla, Daniel, 2002. "Targeting of food aid in rural Ethiopia: chronic need or inertia?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 247-288, August.
    9. Bardhan, Pranab & Mookherjee, Dilip, 2005. "Decentralizing antipoverty program delivery in developing countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 675-704, April.
    10. Jayne, T. S. & Strauss, John & Yamano, Takashi & Molla, Daniel, 2001. "Giving to the Poor? Targeting of Food Aid in Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 887-910, May.
    11. James Levinsohn & Margaret McMillan, 2007. "Does Food Aid Harm the Poor? Household Evidence from Ethiopia," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization and Poverty, pages 561-598, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Conning, Jonathan & Kevane, Michael, 2002. "Community-Based Targeting Mechanisms for Social Safety Nets: A Critical Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 375-394, March.
    13. Barrett, Christopher B, 2001. "Does Food Aid Stabilize Food Availability?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 335-349, January.
    14. Shapouri, Shahla, 1990. "Food Aid: Motivation and Allocation Criteria," Foreign Agricultural Economic Report (FAER) 147994, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. del Ninno, Carlo & Dorosh, Paul A. & Subbarao, Kalanidhi, 2007. "Food aid, domestic policy and food security: Contrasting experiences from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 413-435, August.
    16. Clay, Daniel C. & Molla, Daniel & Habtewold, Debebe, 1999. "Food aid targeting in Ethiopia: A study of who needs it and who gets it," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 391-409, August.
    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. Carol Newman & Mengyang Zhang, 2015. "Connections and the allocation of public benefits," WIDER Working Paper Series 031, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Urquía-Grande, Elena & Rubio-Alcocer, Antonio, 2015. "Agricultural infrastructure donation performance: Empirical evidence in rural Ethiopia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 245-254.
    3. Ferrière, Nathalie & Suwa-Eisenmann, Akiko, 2015. "Does Food Aid Disrupt Local Food Market? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 114-131.
    4. Bommer, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Perez-Alvarez, Marcello, 2022. "Home bias in humanitarian aid: The role of regional favoritism in the allocation of international disaster relief," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    5. Berchin, Issa Ibrahim & Nunes, Nei Antonio & de Amorim, Wellyngton Silva & Alves Zimmer, Gabriel Alfredo & da Silva, Franciani Rodrigues & Fornasari, Vitória Haendchen & Sima, Mihaela & de Andrade Gue, 2019. "The contributions of public policies for strengthening family farming and increasing food security: The case of Brazil," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 573-584.
    6. Christian Bommer & Axel Dreher & Marcello Perez-Alvarez, 2018. "Regional and Ethnic Favoritism in the Allocation of Humanitarian Aid," CESifo Working Paper Series 7038, CESifo.
    7. Carol Newman & Mengyang Zhang, 2015. "Connections and the Allocation of Public Benefits," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-031, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Jaime Hurtubia Torres & Jutta Neitzel, 2017. "Dependency traps in self-targeting food aid programs," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 147-174, November.
    9. Yonas Alem & Nzinga H. Broussard, 2018. "The impact of safety nets on technology adoption: a difference†in†differences analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 13-24, January.
    10. Alem, Yonas & Broussard, Nzinga H., 2013. "Do Safety Nets Promote Technology Adoption? Panel data evidence from rural Ethiopia," Working Papers in Economics 556, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    11. Yu Na Lee, 2021. "Does Aversion to Price Risk Drive Migration? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(4), pages 1268-1293, August.

    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. Elsa Valli, 2017. "Essays on social protection," Economics PhD Theses 1017, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Bet Caeyers & Stefan Dercon, 2012. "Political Connections and Social Networks in Targeted Transfer Programs: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 639-675.
    3. Chikako Yamauchi, 2010. "Community-Based Targeting and Initial Local Conditions: Evidence from Indonesia's IDT Program," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(1), pages 95-147, October.
    4. Haseeb, Muhammad & Vyborny, Kate, 2022. "Data, discretion and institutional capacity: Evidence from cash transfers in Pakistan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    5. Barrett, Christopher B., 2002. "Food Aid And Commercial International Food Trade," Working Papers 14742, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    6. Bet Caeyers & Stefan Dercon, 2012. "Political Connections and Social Networks in Targeted Transfer Programs: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 639 - 675.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Food aid; Political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:8861. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.