Publication: Individual and Country-Level Factors Affecting Support for Foreign Aid
Date
2008-09
ISSN
Published
2008-09
Author(s)
Paxton, Pamela
Knack, Stephen
Abstract
In recent years donor countries have
committed to dramatic increases in the supply of foreign aid
to developing countries. Meeting and sustaining such
commitments will require sufficient support among donor
country voters and taxpayers. The determinants of public
opinion in donor countries on foreign aid have received
little attention. This paper examines attitudes to foreign
aid with a large, multi-level, cross-national study. It
outlines a theoretical rationale for support for foreign
aid, discussing the importance of both individual factors
and economic and social structures. The theory is tested
with multi-level models, including both individual-level and
country-level variables to predict positive attitudes. Two
datasets are used to measure attitudes in donor countries:
(1) the 1995 World Values Survey has information from
approximately 6,000 individuals in nine countries and asks a
rich battery of questions at the individual-level, and (2)
the 2002 Gallup "Voice of the People" survey asks
fewer questions of individuals but includes 17 donor
countries. Using both surveys combines their distinct
strengths and allows tests of individual and national-level
theories across disparate samples. The results generally
support the predictions that attitudes toward aid are
influenced by religiosity, beliefs about the causes of
poverty, awareness of international affairs, and trust in
people and institutions.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Paxton, Pamela; Knack, Stephen. 2008. Individual and Country-Level Factors Affecting Support for Foreign Aid. Policy Research Working Paper No. 4714. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6984 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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