Receiving Foreign Aid Can Reduce Support for Incumbent Presidents

Briggs, Ryan C.

doi:10.1177/1065912918798489

Cited by 17 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…To mitigate selection bias, we use a spatial difference-in-differences estimator. Spatial difference-in-differences has been used in several recent studies of aid (Briggs 2019; Isaksson and Kotsadam 2018a; Kotsadam et al 2018). In essence, we make three comparisons.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We test the observable implications of our theory by combining data from the Afrobarometer survey with information on the locations of US-and Chinese-funded aid projects gleaned from AidData and the Aid Information Management Systems (AIMS) of African finance and planning ministries (Dreher et al 2016;Strange et al 2017). To correct for potential selection effects arising from the non-random distribution of Chinese and US aid, we use a spatial difference-indifferences estimator with country and Afrobarometer round fixed effects, which allows us to compare the attitudes of citizens living near completed projects to the attitudes of those living near planned (future) projects for which a formal agreement has not yet been reached (Briggs 2019;Isaksson and Kotsadam 2018a;Kotsadam et al 2018). Our identifying assumption is that planned and completed projects are subject to similar selection processes, such that citizens who live near planned projects are valid counterfactuals for those living near completed ones.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

Blair

Marty

Roessler

2021

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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Is foreign aid an effective instrument of soft power? Does it generate affinity for donor countries and the values they espouse? This article answers these questions in the context of Chinese aid to Africa and the competing aid regime of the United States. The study combines data on thirty-eight African countries from Afrobarometer, AidData, and the Aid Information Management Systems of African finance and planning ministries. The authors use spatial difference-in-differences to isolate the causal effects of Chinese and US aid. The study finds that Chinese aid to Africa does not increase (and may in fact reduce) beneficiaries’ support for China. By contrast, US aid appears to increase support for the United States and to strengthen recipients’ commitment to liberal democratic values, such as the belief in the importance of elections. Chinese aid does not appear to weaken this commitment, and may strengthen it. The study also finds that Chinese aid increases support for the UK, France and other former colonial powers. These findings advance our understanding of the conditions under which competing aid regimes generate soft power and facilitate the transmission of political principles and ideals.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

Blair

Marty

Roessler

2021

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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“…19.Briggs 2014, 2017, 2019; Dreher et al 2019; Civellia, Horowitz, and Teixeira 2018; Jablonski 2014; Knutsen and Kotsadam 2020; Kotsadam et al 2018; Öhler and Nunnenkamp 2014.…”

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confidence: 99%

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Isaksson¹

2020

Int Org

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Recent empirical evidence suggests that Chinese development finance may be particularly prone to elite capture and patronage spending. If aid ends up in the pockets of political elites and their ethno-regional networks, this may exacerbate ethnic grievances and contribute to ethnic mobilization. In this research note I examine whether Chinese development projects make local ethnic identities more salient in African partner countries. A new geo-referenced data set on the subnational allocation of Chinese development finance projects to Africa is geographically matched with survey data for 50,520 respondents from eleven African countries. The identification strategy compares sites where a Chinese project was under implementation at the time of the interview to sites where a Chinese project will appear subsequently. The empirical results suggest that living near an ongoing Chinese project makes ethnic identities more salient. There is no indication of an equivalent pattern when considering other donors’ development projects.

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“…79 As we discuss in Section B.2 of the supplementary material, some respondents live near more than one completed or planned project. Following most spatial difference-in-differences analyses of this sort (Briggs 2019;Kotsadam 2018a, Isaksson andKotsadam 2018b), we focus on estimating the effect of Chinese and US projects on the extensive rather than the intensive margin. In Section B.7, we show that our conclusions are unchanged when we instead use the number of projects within a thirty-kilometer radius of each respondent.…”

Section: Cross-country Research Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign Aid and State Legitimacy

Blair¹,

Roessler²

2021

World Pol.

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What are the effects of foreign aid on the perceived legitimacy of recipient states? Different donors adhere to different rules, principles, and operating procedures. The authors theorize that variation in these aid regimes may generate variation in the effects of aid on state legitimacy. To test their theory, they compare aid from the United States to aid from China, its most prominent geopolitical rival. Their research design combines within-country analysis of original surveys, survey experiments, and behavioral games in Liberia with cross-country analysis of existing administrative and Afrobarometer data from six African countries. They exploit multiple proxies for state legitimacy, but focus in particular on tax compliance and morale. Contrary to expectations, the authors find little evidence to suggest that exposure to aid diminishes the legitimacy of African states. If anything, the opposite appears to be true. Their results are consistent across multiple settings, multiple levels of analysis, and multiple measurement and identification strategies, and are unlikely to be artifacts of sample selection, statistical power, or the strength or weakness of particular experimental treatments. The authors conclude that the effects of aid on state legitimacy at the microlevel are largely benign.

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Receiving Foreign Aid Can Reduce Support for Incumbent Presidents

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Foreign Aid and State Legitimacy

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