Arbeitspapier

Do Development Minister Characteristics Affect Aid Giving?

Over 300 government members have had the main responsibility for international development cooperation in 23 member countries of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee since the organization started reporting detailed Official Development Assistance (ODA) data in 1967. Understanding their role in foreign aid giving is crucial since their decisions might directly impact aid effectiveness and thus economic development on the ground. Our study examines whether development ministers’ personal characteristics influence aid budgets and aid quality. To this end, we create a novel database on development ministers’ gender, political ideology, prior professional experience in development cooperation, education in economics, and time in office over the 1967-2012 period. Results from fixed-effects panel regressions show that some of the personal characteristics of development ministers matter. Most notably, we find that more experienced ministers with respect to their time in office obtain larger aid budgets. Moreover, there is evidence that female ministers as well as officeholders with prior professional experience in development cooperation and a longer time in office provide higher-quality ODA.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Discussion Paper Series ; No. 604

Classification
Wirtschaft
Subject
development minister
leadership
foreign aid
Official Development Assistance
aid budget
aid quality
personal characteristics
gender
partisan politics
experience

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Fuchs, Andreas
Richert, Katharina
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
(where)
Heidelberg
(when)
2015

DOI
doi:10.11588/heidok.00019769
Handle
URN
urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-197694
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET

Data provider

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ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.

Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Fuchs, Andreas
  • Richert, Katharina
  • University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics

Time of origin

  • 2015

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