Do Corrupt Governments Receive Less Foreign Aid?
(NBER Working Paper No. 7108), Alesina and Weder find that – based on some measures of corruption – the more corrupt the government is, the more aid it actually receives. According to no measures of corruption that they use do less corrupt governments receive more aid. Also, they conclude that there is no evidence that an increase in foreign aid reduces corruption. In terms of bilateral donors, the researchers find that Scandinavian countries (the most generous in per capital terms) give more aid to less corrupt governments; Australia also gives less aid to countries with high levels of corruption. The United States, in contrast, stands out for giving more aid to more corrupt governments, other things equal. The question of whether increased aid leads to increased corruption is the most difficult to answer, Alesina and Weder find. Data on corruption are not only imperfect by their nature, but only have been collected for a large number of countries in recent years. This makes it diffic
