EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

With a Little Help from My Friends: Global Electioneering and World Bank Lending

Erasmus Kersting (erasmus.kersting@villanova.edu) and Christopher Kilby

No 25, Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series from Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics

Abstract: This paper uses monthly World Bank project-level data to assess the impact of upcoming elections in recipient countries on loan activity. We analyze the extent to which geopolitics influence both the timing and size of loan commitments and disbursements. While developing countries have better access to new World Bank loans when they vote with the U.S. in the United Nations General Assembly, we do not find that the political cycle plays a role in the timing or size of new loans. For already approved loans, disbursement is faster when countries are aligned with the U.S. in the UN. Furthermore, disbursement accelerates prior to elections if the country is geopolitically aligned with the U.S. but decelerates if the country is not. These disbursement patterns are consistent with global electioneering that serves U.S. foreign policy interests.

Keywords: World Bank; Political Business Cycle; Elections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E32 F34 F35 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-pol
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://repec.library.villanova.edu/workingpapers/VSBEcon25.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: With a little help from my friends: Global electioneering and World Bank lending (2016) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vil:papers:25

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series from Villanova School of Business Department of Economics and Statistics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher Kilby (chkilby@yahoo.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-29
Handle: RePEc:vil:papers:25