International Aid Pledges to Ukraine: Coverage, Effects, and Potential Challenges

International aid pledges to Ukraine include military, economic, and humanitarian aid. Such figures have been prominently disseminated by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), but curiously their do not include spending on refugees, which countries such as Poland, Germany, Italy, and others have taken on to a significant extent for Ukrainian refugees. The IfW rankings therefore look markedly different—for aid spending relative to GDP—when compared to EIIW figures, which include spending on refugees. Since these expenditures are substantial and should be included in any reasonable definition of humanitarian aid, the IfW figures are rejected as being potentially very misleading. Aid expenditures per capita per month in the EIIW figures are set at €1,000 per month in EU countries with high per capita income levels, and at €500 in countries with low per capita incomes. In the case of refugee spending, important effects include macroeconomic demand effects in the short term and production effects in the medium term, to the extent that refugees are integrated into relevant labor markets. Differentiated problem perspectives are developed.