Research and Publications

AidData Publications

AidData continually produces research and analysis. Whenever possible, we make them available to AidData users free of charge. In addition to papers, books, and reports authored by members of the AidData team, we also provide links to selected publications and working papers that use our data, but that are authored by third-party research teams. Please find our most recent publications and working papers below.

Recent Publications

Controlling Coalitions: Social Lending at the Multilateral Development Banks

By Mona Lyne, Daniel Nielson, and Michael Tierney

Published in the Review of International Organizations in December 2009. Abstract: Multilateral development banks (MDBs) dramatically increased social lending for health, education, and safety nets after 1985. Yet the great powers’ social policy preferences remained relatively static from 1980 to 2000. This contradicts the conventional view that powerful states control IOs. We argue that highly institutionalized IOs like MDBs require a complete model of possible member-state coalitions encompassing the preferences of all member states—not just major powers. We develop multiple measures of state preferences and include all member states in our coalitional model. We evaluate our model and alternatives with an analysis of more than 10,000 MDB loans from 1980 to 2000. We find that when we include all member states weighted by their voting shares, principal preferences are significantly related to lending outcomes. Read More | PDF Download.

AidData featured on the Cover of Environment Magazine

By J. Timmons Roberts, Bradley Parks, Michael Tierney, and Robert Hicks

AidData, formerly known as PLAID, is featured on the front cover of environment magazine. Since the first major international conference on environment and development in Stockholm in 1972, environmentalists, voters, and policymakers in the developed world have faced a vexing dilemma: with some of the richest stores of biodiversity, natural resources, and carbon located in developing countries, the greatest potential for damage to the global environment resides in places outside the sovereign control of the countries most able, financially speaking, to prevent it. PDF Download.

Greening Aid? Understanding the Environmental Impact of Development Assistance

By Robert L. Hicks, Bradley C. Parks, J. Timmons Roberts, Michael J. Tierney

Every year, billions of dollars of environmental aid flow from the rich governments of the North to the poor governments of the South. Why do donors provide this aid? What do they seek to achieve? How effective is the aid given? And does it always go to the places of greatest environmental need? All of these questions and many more are addressed in this groundbreaking text, which is based on the authors' work compiling the most comprehensive dataset of foreign aid ever assembled.
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Fueling Injustice: Globalization, the Ecological Debt, and Confronting Responsibility for Climate Change

By Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks

The globalization of economic production fundamentally reshapes how a 'fair' solution to the climate change problem must be forged. Emissions are increasing sharply in developing countries as wealthy nations 'offshore' the energy- and natural resource-intensive stages of production. We review a new and relatively under-utilized theory of 'ecologically unequal exchange' and apply it to the case of climate change. We describe four distinct principles that have been proposed to assign responsibility for carbon emissions, discuss their inadequacies, and briefly lay out some 'hybrid' proposals currently under consideration. We suggest combining hybrid proposals with environmental aid packages that help poorer nations transition from carbon-intensive pathways of development to more climate-friendly development trajectories, using remuneration from the so-called 'ecological debt'. Read More | PDF Download.

All AidData Publications

"Controlling Coalitions: Social Lending at the Multilateral Development Banks." Mona Lyne, Daniel Nielson, and Michael J. Tierney. Review of International Organizations 4 (4), 2009.

"Has Foreign Aid Been Greened?" Robert L. Hicks, Bradley C. Parks, J. Timmons Roberts, and Michael J. Tierney. Environment Magazine, January/February 2009.

Greening Aid: Understanding the Environmental Impact of Development Assistance. Robert L. Hicks, Bradley C. Parks, J. Timmons Roberts, and Michael J. Tierney. Oxford University Press, 2008.

"Fueling Injustice: Globalization, the Ecological Debt, and Confronting Responsibility for Climate Change." J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks. Globalizations 4 (1), 2007.

"Bridging the Rationalist-Constructivist Divide: Re-engineering the Culture of the World Bank." Daniel Nielson, Michael J. Tierney, and Catherine Weaver. Journal of International Relations and Development 9 (2), 2006.

A Climate of Injustice: North-South Politics and Climate Policy. J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks. MIT University Press, 2006.

"Theory, Data, and Hypothesis Testing: World Bank Environmental Reform Redux." Daniel Nielson and Michael Tierney. International Organization 59 (3), 2005.

"Who Ratifies Environmental Treaties and Why? Institutionalism, Structuralism, and Participation by 192 Nations in 22 Treaties." J. Timmons Roberts, Bradley C. Parks and Alexis A.Vásquez. Global Environmental Politics 4 (3), 2004.

"Delegation to International Organizations: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform." Daniel Nielson and Michael J. Tierney. International Organization 57 (2), 2003.

Conference and Working Papers by AidData Staff

Triage for Democracy: Selection Effects in Governance Aid. Richard A. Nielsen and Daniel L. Nielson. Paper presented to the research seminar at the Department of Government, College of William & Mary, 5 February 2010.

"Does Adjustment Lending Work? Policy Reforms in the Wake of Program Finance." Joshua Loud and Daniel Nielson. Presented to the International Political Economy Society at Stanford University, November 2007.

"IOs as Norms Platforms: The World Bank's Influence on Environmental Practice at the Islamic Development Bank." Daniel Nielson and Christopher O'Keefe. Presented at Duke University's and University of North Carolina's joint seminar on Global Governance and Democracy in Durham, September 2007.

"Faith and Foreign Aid: Voter and Government Interests in (European) Aid to Muslim Countries." Joshua Loud, Daniel Nielson, and Christopher O'Keefe. Presented at the American Political Science Association annual meetings in Chicago, September 2007.

"Healthy Aid? The (In)Effectiveness of Health-targeted Development Assistance." Nathaniel Gebhard, Katherine Kitterman, Ashley-Anne Mitchell, and Daniel Nielson. Presented at the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Mentored Learning Conference in Provo, April 2007.

"If You Build it, Will they Come? Infrastructure Aid and Foreign Direct Investment." Steven Kapfer, Richard Nielsen, and Daniel Nielson. Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting in Chicago, April 2007.

"Strategic Aid: International Political Economy, Public Choice, and Donor Interest at Multilateral Development Banks." Christopher O'Keefe and A. Bradley Potter. Presented at the International Studies Association annual meeting in Chicago, March 2007.

"Principals and Interests: Agency Theory and Multilateral Development Bank Lending." Daniel Nielson and Michael J. Tierney. Presented to the International Political Economy Society at Princeton University, November 2006 and at the Political Economy of International Organizations Annual Conference, Jan 2010.

"Values, Institutions and Structures: Islam, Democracy, and Hegemony at the Islamic Development Bank." Christopher O'Keefe. Presented at the International Studies Association annual meeting in San Diego, March 2005.

"Cooperation or Collusion: Explaining Bilateral and Multilateral Environmental Aid to Developing Countries." Bradley C. Parks and Michael J. Tierney. Presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting in Chicago, September 2004.

Papers from AidData's Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference

On March 22, 2010 the AidData team is holding the Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference at University College in Oxford, UK to make the database available to the public for the first time. The conference spanned three days and included presentations and panel discussions featuring many leading development practitioners, researchers, and advocates.

"Exploring Spatial Dependence in Bilateral and Multilateral Patterns of Aid Giving." Fabian Barthel. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Foreign Aid and Regime Change: Assessing the Impact of Different Donors and Aid Types." Sarah Bermeo. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Are New Donors Different? Comparing the Allocation of Aid Projects between New and Old Donor Countries." Axel Dreher. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"To Empower or to Impoverish? The Sector–by–Sector Effectiveness of Foreign Aid." Michael Findley, Darren Hawkins, Rich Nielsen, Dan Nielson, and Sven Wilson. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"The Geography of Foreign Aid and Violent Armed Conflict." Michael Findley. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Fishy Business: Exploring the Relationship between International Aid, Mangrove Deforestation, and Endangerment of Livelihoods in Coastal Ecuador." Stuart Hamilton. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Aid and Corruption: Do Donors Use Development Assistance to Provide the "Right" Incentives?" Alessia Isopi. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"A Quality of Official Development Assistance Index." Homi Kharas. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"What Determines the Size of Aid Projects?." Christopher Kilby. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Aid Quality and Donor Rankings." Stephen Knack. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010. (Also available as a World Bank Working Paper.)

"The Supply of Foreign Aid and Demand for Asylum." David Leblang. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Coding Error or Statistical Embellishment? -- The Political Economy of Reporting Climate Aid." Katharina Michaelowa. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Explaining the Allocation of Foreign Aid for Biodiversity Conservation." Daniel Miller. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Does Aid Follow Need? Humanitarian Motives in Aid Allocation." Richard Nielsen. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"‘We Don't Need No Education": Evaluating the Impact of Education-Specific Foreign Aid on Enrollment Rates." Daniel Nielson. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Trends in Official Climate Finance: Evidence from Human and Machine Coding." Timmons Roberts. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"China's Development Cooperation with Southeast Asia." Margot Schüller. Pressented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Assessing Arab Aid: Trends Explanations and Unreported Transfers." Debra Shushan and Chris Marcoux. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Can a Useful Aid Effectiveness Index Be Developed Using the Paris Declaration Framework?" Pranay Kumar Sinha. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Donor Political Influences on Foreign Aid Composition." Dustin Tingley. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Buying Bretton Woods." James Vreeland. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.

"Fixing Failed Foreign Aid: Can Agency Practices Improve?" Claudia Williamson. Presented at the Oxford Aid Transparency and Development Finance Conference. March 2010.