By exploiting a unique data set on aid allocation by major Arab donors, this paper explores the relationship between aid allocation and the strategic alignment of donors with recipients as well as the developmental need of recipients. To motivate our empirical work, we first develop a new theory of aid allocation, wherein a representative donor country's payoff depends on both the well-being of the representative recipient country as well as its strategic alignment with the donor. Our theoretical model suggests that there exists a positive relationship between donor's aid allocation and the geopolitical and cultural alignment of the recipient country. Our model also predicts that donors allocate more aid to recipient countries with higher levels of country capacity. To test the prediction of our theory empirically, we construct a new measure of geopolitical and cultural alignment for recipient countries by using principal component analysis. We employ this measure and a set of control variables to show that the geopolitical and cultural alignment of a recipient country and its capacity to implement development projects are the key determinants of aid allocation from the Arab donors.

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援助分配的政治经济学：阿拉伯捐助者的案例

通过利用阿拉伯主要捐助者援助分配的独特数据集，本文探讨了援助分配与捐助者与受援国的战略联盟以及受援国的发展需求之间的关系。为了激发我们的实证工作，我们首先发展了一种新的援助分配理论，其中代表性捐助国的收益取决于代表性受援国的福祉及其与捐助国的战略联盟。我们的理论模型表明，捐助者的援助分配与受援国的地缘政治和文化联盟之间存在正相关关系。我们的模型还预测，捐助者将更多援助分配给国家能力水平较高的受援国。为了实证检验我们理论的预测，我们通过使用主成分分析为受援国构建了一种新的地缘政治和文化一致性衡量标准。我们采用这一措施和一组控制变量来表明受援国的地缘政治和文化一致性及其实施发展项目的能力是阿拉伯捐助者援助分配的关键决定因素。