IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v61y2017i3p671-683.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign Aid, Human Rights, and Democracy Promotion: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Allison Carnegie
  • Nikolay Marinov

Abstract

Does foreign aid improve human rights and democracy? We help arbitrate the debate over this question by leveraging a novel source of exogeneity: the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. We find that when a country's former colonizer holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the budget‐making process, the country is allocated considerably more foreign aid than are countries whose former colonizer does not hold the presidency. Using instrumental variables estimation, we demonstrate that this aid has positive effects on human rights and democracy, although the effects are short‐lived after the shock to aid dissipates. We adduce the timing of events, qualitative evidence, and theoretical insights to argue that the conditionality associated with an increased aid commitment is responsible for the positive effects in the domains of human rights and democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Allison Carnegie & Nikolay Marinov, 2017. "Foreign Aid, Human Rights, and Democracy Promotion: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(3), pages 671-683, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:61:y:2017:i:3:p:671-683
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12289
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12289?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2019. "Foreign in influence and domestic policy: A survey," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1928, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Langlotz, Sarah, 2019. "The effects of foreign aid on refugee flows," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 127-147.
    3. Apoorva Lal & Mac Lockhart & Yiqing Xu & Ziwen Zu, 2023. "How Much Should We Trust Instrumental Variable Estimates in Political Science? Practical Advice Based on Over 60 Replicated Studies," Papers 2303.11399, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    4. Laura E. Jacobson, 2020. "President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Policy Process and the Conversation around HIV/AIDS in the United States," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(2), pages 149-166, July.
    5. Bai, Yu & Li, Yanjun & Wang, Yunuo, 2022. "Chinese aid and local political attitudes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Sara Kahn-Nisser, 2021. "For better or worse: Shaming, faming, and human rights abuse," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(3), pages 479-493, May.
    7. Corwin, Hillary, 2023. "Coercive and catalytic strategies for human rights promotion: State violence and foreign assistance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Michael A. Clemens & Hannah M. Postel, 2018. "Deterring Emigration with Foreign Aid: An Overview of Evidence from Low‐Income Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 667-693, December.
    9. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2021. "Foreign Influence and Domestic Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 426-487, June.
    10. Copelovitch, Mark & Rickard, Stephanie, 2021. "Partisan technocrats: how leaders matter in international organizations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112215, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Christoph Mikulaschek, 2018. "Issue linkage across international organizations: Does European countries’ temporary membership in the UN Security Council increase their receipts from the EU budget?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 491-518, December.
    12. Nathalie Ferrière, 2022. "To Give or Not to Give? How Do Other Donors React to European Food Aid Allocation?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(1), pages 147-171, February.
    13. Brett L Carter, 2023. "Can Western Donors Constrain Repressive Governments? Evidence from Debt Relief Negotiations in Africa," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(6), pages 1183-1217, July.
    14. Gleditsch Kristian Skrede, 2023. "“This Research has Important Policy Implications…”," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 29(1), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Merih Angin & Albana Shehaj & Adrian J. Shin, 2021. "Inside job: Migration and distributive politics in the European Union," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 264-288, July.
    16. Tobias Heinrich & Matt W. Loftis, 2019. "Democracy Aid and Electoral Accountability," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(1), pages 139-166, January.
    17. Osman S Kiratli, 2019. "Aiding together? Europeans’ attitudes on common aid policy," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(2), pages 261-281, June.
    18. Richard Clark & Lindsay R. Dolan, 2021. "Pleasing the Principal: U.S. Influence in World Bank Policymaking," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 36-51, January.

    More about this item

    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:wly:amposc:v:61:y:2017:i:3:p:671-683. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    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.