Wedded to Prosperity? Informal Influence and Regional Favoritism

Pietro Bomprezzi, Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Teresa Hailer, Andreas Kammerlander, Lennart Kaplan, Silvia Marchesi, Tania Masi, Charlotte Robert and Kerstin Unfried

No 10969, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper explores the informal influence of political leaders' spouses on the subnational allocation and effectiveness of development aid. We investigate whether regions containing the birthplaces of political leaders' spouses receive significantly more aid during their partners' tenure and whether this aid is less effective compared to other times. To examine these patterns, we construct two new global datasets: one tracking the personal characteristics of political leaders and their spouses, and another geocoding aid projects, including new data on aid from the United States and 18 European donors. Our analysis of the 1990-2020 period reveals that regions with the birthplaces of political leaders' spouses receive significantly more aid from Western bilateral donors, while political favoritism through Chinese aid shifts from the birth regions of spouses to those of the leaders themselves. We find that aid to the birth regions of spouses increases particularly before elections and is less effective there compared to aid given to the same regions at other times.

Keywords: favoritism; informal influence; birth regions; development finance; foreign aid; official development assistance; political connections; geoeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F35 O19 O47 P33 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-fdg, nep-his, nep-pol and nep-ure
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Working Paper: Wedded to Prosperity? Informal Influence and Regional Favoritism (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10969

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