Do Domestic Politics Shape U.S. Influence in the World Bank?
Date Published
Jul 1, 2016
Authors
Erasmus Kersting, Christopher Kilby
Publisher
Citation
Kersting, Erasmus and Christopher Kilby. 2016. Do Domestic Politics Shape U.S. Influence in the World Bank? AidData Working Paper #28. Williamsburg, VA: AidData at William & Mary.
Update: A revised version of this paper has been published in the Review of International Organizations.
Announcement
Abstract
This paper investigates whether U.S. presidential administrations choose to exert more influence over international financial institutions when they have less control over bilateral aid because of a divided U.S. government. Reexamining four empirical studies of the World Bank, we demonstrate that findings of U.S. influence are driven by the years in which the U.S. government was divided. This provides a richer picture of when and why the U.S. exerts influence in multilateral settings and an alternate explanation to persistent questions about the role of international organizations in the political economy.