Aid and agency in Africa: Explaining food disbursements across Ethiopian households, 1994–2004

Nzinga Broussard, Stefan Dercon and Rohini Somanathan

Journal of Development Economics, 2014, vol. 108, issue C, 128-137

Abstract: We use a principal–agent framework and data from the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey between 1994 and 2004 to understand biases in the distribution of food aid in Ethiopia. We show that even when aid is systematically misallocated, aid recipients may match official classifications of needy households if agents deviate from allocation rules in ways that are difficult to monitor. Agent behavior is therefore best understood by comparing aid along dimensions of need that are visible to the principal with those that are difficult to observe outside the village. We do this by using data on a panel of 943 households observed over six rounds of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey. In support of our model, we find that while the demographics of aid recipients do match official criteria, disbursements are increasing in pre-aid consumption, self-reported power and involvement in village-level organizations. We conclude that the extent to which food aid insulates some of the world's poorest families from agricultural shocks depends on a nuanced interaction of policy constraints and informal structures of local power.

Keywords: Food-aid; Poverty; Social transfers; Targeting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387814000170
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: AID AND AGENCY IN AFRICA EXPLAINING FOOD DISBURSEMENTS ACROSS ETHIOPIAN HOUSEHOLDS, 1994-2004 (2012)
Working Paper: Aid and Agency in Africa: Explaining Food Disbursements Across Ethiopian Households, 1994-2004 (2012)
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:eee:deveco:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:128-137

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.02.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().