IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/deveco/v133y2018icp295-305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the delegation of aid implementation to multilateral agencies

Author

Listed:
  • Annen, Kurt
  • Knack, Stephen

Abstract

Some large multilateral agencies implement aid projects in a broad range of sectors, with aid disbursements showing a strong overlap with those of bilateral donors. Why do donors delegate sizable shares of their aid to large non-specialized agencies for implementation? This paper develops a game theoretic model to explain this puzzle. Donors delegate aid implementation to strengthen aid selectivity, incentivizing policy improvements in recipient countries, which in turn improves the development effectiveness of aid. Aid delegation is optimal for donors who disagree on the optimal distribution of aid precisely when an agency represents the average donor. In the model, non-selective bilateral aid can coexist with selective aid implemented by a multilateral agency funded by those same bilateral donors.

Suggested Citation

  • Annen, Kurt & Knack, Stephen, 2018. "On the delegation of aid implementation to multilateral agencies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 295-305.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:133:y:2018:i:c:p:295-305
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.02.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387818301469
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.02.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Annen, Kurt & Strickland, Scott, 2017. "Global samaritans? Donor election cycles and the allocation of humanitarian aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 38-47.
    2. Djankov, Simeon & Montalvo, Jose G. & Reynal-Querol, Marta, 2009. "Aid with multiple personalities," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 217-229, June.
    3. Knack, Stephen & Rahman, Aminur, 2007. "Donor fragmentation and bureaucratic quality in aid recipients," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 176-197, May.
    4. 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.
    5. Torsvik, Gaute, 2005. "Foreign economic aid; should donors cooperate?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 503-515, August.
    6. Jenny Simon & Justin Mattias Valasek, 2016. "The Political Economy of Multilateral Aid Funds," CESifo Working Paper Series 5857, CESifo.
    7. Peter Nunnenkamp & Hannes Öhler & Rainer Thiele, 2013. "Donor coordination and specialization: did the Paris Declaration make a difference?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 149(3), pages 537-563, September.
    8. Annen Kurt & Kosempel Stephen, 2009. "Foreign Aid, Donor Fragmentation, and Economic Growth," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, August.
    9. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    10. Svensson, Jakob, 2000. "When is foreign aid policy credible? Aid dependence and conditionality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 61-84, February.
    11. Jia, Hao & Skaperdas, Stergios & Vaidya, Samarth, 2013. "Contest functions: Theoretical foundations and issues in estimation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 211-222.
    12. Simon, Jenny & Valasek, Justin Mattias, 2016. "The political economy of multilateral aid funds," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2016-303, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    13. Raghuram G. Rajan & Arvind Subramanian, 2008. "Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 643-665, November.
    14. Rune Jansen Hagen, 2006. "Buying Influence: Aid Fungibility in a Strategic Perspective," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 267-284, May.
    15. Knack, Stephen & Rogers, F. Halsey & Eubank, Nicholas, 2011. "Aid Quality and Donor Rankings," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1907-1917.
    16. 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.
    17. William Easterly, 2003. "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 23-48, Summer.
    18. Kurt Annen & Luc Moers, 2017. "Donor Competition for Aid Impact, and Aid Fragmentation," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 708-729.
    19. Svensson, Jakob, 2003. "Why conditional aid does not work and what can be done about it?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 381-402, April.
    20. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    21. Dollar, David & Levin, Victoria, 2006. "The Increasing Selectivity of Foreign Aid, 1984-2003," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2034-2046, December.
    22. Karl Pedersen, 2001. "The Samaritan's Dilemma and the Effectiveness of Development Aid," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(5), pages 693-703, November.
    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. Annen, Kurt & Strickland, Scott, 2017. "Global samaritans? Donor election cycles and the allocation of humanitarian aid," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 38-47.
    2. Balázs Szent-Iványi & Bernhard Reinsberg & Simon Lightfoot, 2019. "Small Donors in World Politics: The Role of Trust Funds in the Foreign Aid Policies of Central and Eastern European Donors," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(3), pages 663-683, July.
    3. Silvia Marchesi & Tania Masi, 2021. "Delegation of implementation in project aid," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 655-687, July.
    4. Nathalie Ferrière, 2020. "Donors and implementing agencies: a quantitative analysis of delegation and fragmentation in humanitarian aid [Donneurs et acteurs de terrain : une étude quantitative de la délégation et de la frag," Working Papers halshs-02479415, HAL.
    5. Axel Dreher & Jenny Simon & Justin Valasek, 2021. "Optimal decision rules in multilateral aid funds," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 689-719, July.
    6. Samuel Brazys & Johan A. Elkink & Gina Kelly, 2017. "Bad neighbors? How co-located Chinese and World Bank development projects impact local corruption in Tanzania," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 227-253, June.
    7. Philip Keefer & Christopher Kilby, 2021. "Introduction to the special issue: In memoriam Stephen Knack," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 473-493, July.
    8. Dreher, Axel & Simon, Jenny & Valasek, Justin, 2018. "The Political Economy of Multilateral Aid Funds," CEPR Discussion Papers 13297, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Bernhard Reinsberg & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "Blockchain Technology and the Governance of Foreign Aid," Working Papers wp505, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.

    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. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    2. Kurt Annen & Luc Moers, 2017. "Donor Competition for Aid Impact, and Aid Fragmentation," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 708-729.
    3. Alok Kumar, 2014. "Samaritan's Dilemma, Time-Inconsistency and Foreign Aid: A Review of Theoretical Models," Department Discussion Papers 1405, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    4. Hagen, Rune Jansen, 2014. "Rents and the Political Economy of Development Aid," Working Papers in Economics 07/14, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    5. Alok Kumar, 2017. "Foreign Aid, Incentives and Efficiency: Can Foreign Aid Lead to the Efficient Level of Investment?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 678-697, August.
    6. Almuth Scholl, 2018. "Debt Relief for Poor Countries: Conditionality and Effectiveness," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 626-648, July.
    7. Kurt Annen & Stephen Kosempel, 2018. "Why Aid-to-GDP Ratios?," Working Papers 1801, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    8. repec:elg:eechap:15325_15 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Andrew W. Horowitz & Raja Kali & Hongwei Song, 2021. "Rethinking the aid–growth relationship: A network approach," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 359-380, February.
    10. Elisabeth Paul, 2006. "A Survey of the Theoretical Economic Literature on Foreign Aid," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Emmanuelle Auriol & Josepa Miquel-Florensa, 2019. "Taxing fragmented aid to improve aid efficiency," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 453-477, September.
    12. Angelika J. Budjan & Andreas Fuchs, 2021. "Democracy and Aid Donorship," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 217-238, November.
    13. SAWADA Yasuyuki & YAMADA Hiroyuki & KUROSAKI Takashi, 2008. "Is Aid Allocation Consistent with Global Poverty Reduction?: A Cross-Donor Comparison," Discussion papers 08025, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Almuth Scholl, 2009. "Aid Effectiveness and Limited Enforceable Conditionality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(2), pages 377-391, April.
    15. J. Atsu Amegashie & Bazoumana Ouattara, 2011. "An Empirical Inquiry into the Nature of Welfarism," CESifo Working Paper Series 3318, CESifo.
    16. Hagen, Rune Jansen, 2004. "Foreign Aid and Domestic Politics Implications for Aid Selectivity," Working Papers 04-12, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
    17. Candel-Sánchez Francisco, 2014. "Incentives for Conditional Aid Effectiveness," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, June.
    18. Clist, Paul, 2011. "25Years of Aid Allocation Practice: Whither Selectivity?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1724-1734.
    19. SAWADA Yasuyuki & YAMADA Hiroyuki & KUROSAKI Takashi, 2008. "Is Aid Allocation Consistent with Global Poverty Reduction?: A Cross-donor comparison (Japanese)," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 08065, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    20. Liya Palagashvili & Claudia R. Williamson, 2021. "Grading foreign aid agencies: Best practices across traditional and emerging donors," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 654-676, May.
    21. Gaoussou Diarra, 2011. "Aid unpredictability and absorptive capacity: analyzing disbursement delays in Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(1), pages 1004-1017.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign aid; Trust funds; Aid selectivity; Multilateral agency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

    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:eee:deveco:v:133:y:2018:i:c:p:295-305. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/devec .

    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.