The First Tranche

AidData's blog is a first cut of our research in international development
Oct 08, 2018

USAID roads project sparked—and shifted—economic activity in West Bank

AidData merged high-resolution nighttime lights imagery with precisely-located road improvements to discover how a $900-million investment impacted the Palestinian economy.
Oct 04, 2018

AidData wins two-year Millennium Challenge Corporation award

The MCC awards AidData $400,000 to develop new methods using high-resolution satellite data to more accurately and frequently monitor the impacts of land reforms on poverty and land use.
Sep 11, 2018

Chinese infrastructure investments reduce inequalities in developing countries

A new AidData working paper analyzes Chinese infrastructure's impacts using the most comprehensive dataset of Chinese development project locations ever assembled.
Aug 01, 2018

A volley of words—and new data—on China’s diplomatic reach

A recent report by AidData informed and incited discussion of China’s growing public diplomacy activities in East Asia and Pacific.

Jun 26, 2018

Chinese public diplomacy in East Asia and the Pacific: Is it working?

A new report from AidData chronicles the nature and impact of China’s diplomatic programs.

All Posts

About AidData

We use rigorous methods, cutting-edge tools, and granular data on international development to answer the question: who is doing what, where, for whom, and to what effect?

Publications

Serving the policy and research communities
Policy Reports
Helping decision-makers find signal in the noise
Ties That Bind: Quantifying China's public diplomacy and its "good neighbor" effect
June 27, 2018
Listening to Leaders 2018: Is development cooperation tuned-in or tone-deaf?
May 31, 2018
Working Papers
Our latest pre-peer reviewed research
Connective Financing: Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries
September 11, 2018
Estimating Spatial Treatment Effects: An Application to Base Closures and Aid Delivery in Afghanistan
August 30, 2018
All Publications

Dynamic Data

Dashboards & tools to leverage data throughout the programming lifecycle

Financing the SDGs

Visualize aid flow estimates to the Sustainable Development Goals

GeoQuery

Filter and join geospatial datasets into units of analysis that fit your research

AidData Dashboard

Access detailed aid project records reported by the OECD and IATI

Underreported Finance

Search for Chinese-backed development projects worldwide
Technology

Program Areas

Helping development organizations make better-informed decisions

Transparent Development Footprints

Tracking underreported financial flows

Sustainable Development Intelligence

Better aid targeting to ensure that no one is left behind

Listening to Leaders

Perspectives of leaders in low- and middle-income countries

Geospatial Impact Evaluations

Portfolio-wide insights from rigorous impact evaluations

Geospatial Data Framework

Enabling the next generation of geospatial analysis
Programs Overview

Versioned Datasets

Static, timestamped datasets for research

Featured Datasets

Granular and comprehensive data on development activites worldwide

AidData's Geocoded Global Chinese Official Finance, Version 1.1.1

AidData's Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset, 2000-2014, Version 1.0

Geocoded Afrobarometer Data, Version 1.0
Dataset Hub

Research Methods

Advancing scientific frontiers and evidence-based policymaking

Geocoding

Geospatial Impact Evaluation

SDG Coding

Tracking Underreported Financial Flows