Addressing the Food Aid Curse
Abstract
In this paper, we build a model of agrarian economies in which a kleptocratic government taxes farmers to maximize its life-time utility. The model is a dynamic general equilibrium model in which the subsistence of farmers requires a minimum level of consumption. We analyze the effect that a benevolent food aid agency can have in such an environment. If it expects the food aid agency to intervene, the kleptocratic government will starve its farmers, in a clear case of the Samaritan's dilemma. We show that the likelihood of man-made famines, however, can be greatly reduced if the food aid agency intervenes with probability slightly lower than one. No aid agency devoted to saving lives, however, can commit to such policy. We propose a solution to this food aid curse.Download Info
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Paper provided by CIRPEE in its series Cahiers de recherche with number 0717.Length:
Date of creation: 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0717
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Related research
Keywords: Food aid; famines; commitment;Other versions of this item:
- Blouin, Max & Pallage, Stéphane, 2009. "Addressing the food aid curse," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 49-51, July.
- F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
- D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-AFR-2007-06-23 (Africa)
- NEP-AGR-2007-06-23 (Agricultural Economics)
- NEP-ALL-2007-06-23 (All new papers)
- NEP-CDM-2007-06-23 (Collective Decision-Making)
- NEP-DGE-2007-06-23 (Dynamic General Equilibrium)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000.
" Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?,"
Journal of Economic Growth,
Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
- Dollar, David & Alesina, Alberto, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Scholarly Articles 4553020, Harvard University Department of Economics.
- Alberto Alesina & David Dollar, 1998. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," NBER Working Papers 6612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Boone, Peter, 1996. "Politics and the effectiveness of foreign aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 289-329, February.
- Hagen, Rune Jansen, 2006. "Samaritan agents? On the strategic delegation of aid policy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 249-263, February.
- Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson & Thierry Verdier, 2004. "Alfred Marshall Lecture: Kleptocracy and Divide-and-Rule: A Model of Personal Rule," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 162-192, 04/05.
- Max Blouin & Stéphane Pallage, 2007. "Humanitarian Relief and Civil Conflict," Cahiers de recherche 0706, CIRPEE.
- William Easterly, 2003. "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 23-48, Summer.
- Karl Pedersen, 2001. "The Samaritan's Dilemma and the Effectiveness of Development Aid," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 8(5), pages 693-703, November.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- J. Atsu Amegashie, 2009. "Third-Party Intervention in Conflicts and the Indirect Samaritan's Dilemma," CESifo Working Paper Series 2695, CESifo Group Munich.
- Max Blouin & Stéphane Pallage, 2007. "Humanitarian Relief and Civil Conflict," Cahiers de recherche 0706, CIRPEE.
- Margolies, Amy & Hoddinott, John, 2012. "Mapping the Impacts of Food Aid: Current Knowledge and Future Directions," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
- Max Blouin & Stéphane Pallage, 2009. "Warlords, Famine and Food Aid: Who Fights, Who Starves?," Cahiers de recherche 0947, CIRPEE.
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