After catastrophes, international donors offering assistance must decide whether to channel resources via the local government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We examine how these channels differ in targeting aid by combining survey data on aid received by Nicaraguan households before and after Hurricane Mitch. In the short term, NGOs provided aid according to hurricane severity, while government aid allocations were not significantly higher in the hardest hit areas. However, government-provided aid matched that of NGOs several years later. Despite the lag in government aid, we do not find evidence of political manipulation of relief aid in either the short or long-term.

灾难发生后，提供援助的国际捐助者必须决定是通过当地政府还是通过非政府组织 (NGO) 引导资源。我们通过结合有关尼加拉瓜家庭在飓风米奇前后获得的援助的调查数据，研究这些渠道在定向援助方面有何不同。短期内，非政府组织根据飓风的严重程度提供援助，而在受灾最严重的地区，政府的援助拨款并没有显着增加。然而，几年后，政府提供的援助与非政府组织的援助相匹配。尽管政府援助滞后，但我们没有发现短期或长期救济援助受到政治操纵的证据。