“…1 In general, researchers have found geopolitical and commercial interests particularly important for the U.S. (Alesina & Dollar, 2000), commercial interests particularly important for Japan (Alesina & Dollar, 2000;Schraeder, Hook, & Taylor, 1998;Tuman & Ayoub, 2004;Tuman, Emmert, & Sterken, 2001;Tuman & Strand, 2006) and humanitarian concerns particularly important for small donors, namely Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden (Alesina & Dollar, 2000;Stokke, 1989). 2 A number of studies of Japanese bilateral aid consider whether Japanese policy reacts to U.S. pressure (gaiatsu) with positive results for Africa (Hickman, 1993;Tuman & Ayoub, 2004), mixed findings for Latin America (Katada, 1997;Tuman et al, 2001) but no evidence in Asia (Tuman & Strand, 2006). Previous work on multilateral aid allocation finds more emphasis on recipient need as compared to bilateral aid as a whole (Burnside & Dollar, 2000;Alesina & Dollar, 2000).…”