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Determinants of international emergency aid - humanitarian need only ?

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  • Fink, Guenther
  • Redaelli, Silvia

Abstract

The authors use an original data set covering more than 400 recent natural disasters to analyze the determinants of international emergency aid. Although humanitarian need is a major determinant of emergency relief payments, the results imply that political and strategic factors play a crucial role in the emergency aid allocation. On average, donor governments favor smaller, geographically closer, and oil exporting countries, and display significant biases in favor of politically less aligned countries as well as toward their former colonies. The authors also test and reject the independence of donors'aid decisions, finding strong evidence for bandwagon effects in humanitarian assistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Fink, Guenther & Redaelli, Silvia, 2009. "Determinants of international emergency aid - humanitarian need only ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4839, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4839
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    Keywords

    Hazard Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Disaster Management; Gender and Health; Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness;
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