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First impressions: How leader changes affect bilateral aid

Tobias Rommel and Paul Schaudt

Journal of Public Economics, 2020, vol. 185, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates a new mechanism to explain politically induced changes in bilateral aid. We argue that shifts in the foreign policy alignment between a donor and a recipient country following leadership changes induce reallocation of aid. Utilizing data from the G7 and 130 developing countries between 1975 and 2012 and employing high dimensional fixed effects models, we show that incoming leaders in recipient countries, which politically converge towards their current donors, receive more aid commitments, compared to those that diverge. Accounting for donor leader change, we additionally find that incumbent recipient leaders have an opportunity to get even more aid when political change in donor countries moves them closer to the donor's foreign policy position. Thus, leadership turnover in recipient and donor countries makes otherwise inconsequential deviations in foreign policy alignment highly consequential for aid provision.

Keywords: Dyadic leader change; UNGA voting realignment; Development aid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F35 F53 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: First Impressions: How Leader Changes Affect Bilateral Aid (2016) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:185:y:2020:i:c:s0047272719301690

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104107

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