Citizen preferences and public goods: comparing preferences for foreign aid and government programs in Uganda
Citizen preferences and public goods: comparing preferences for foreign aid and government programs in Uganda
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公民偏好和公共物品：比较乌干达对外援助和政府项目的偏好
DOI：
10.1007/s11558-016-9243-2
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Michael G. Findley
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
H. Milner;D. Nielson;Michael G. Findley
关于援助影响的不同理论对受援国公民对外国援助的态度做出了不同的预测。为了检验这些不同的理论，我们调查了他们对援助和政府项目的偏好。就像援助捕获理论所说的那样，公民是否对由本国政府资助的发展项目和由外国援助捐助者资助的发展项目漠不关心？为了解决这个问题，在一项针对乌干达公民的大型代表性样本的实验中，我们随机分配了实际即将开展的发展项目的资助团体的名称，并邀请公民在态度和行为上表达支持。我们发现，与政府项目相比，公民更愿意表现出对外国援助项目的行为支持，特别是如果他们已经认为政府腐败或偏袒，或者如果他们不是执政党的支持者。他们也更信任援助国，认为援助国更有效，而且不会一贯反对援助的附加条件。这一实验证据与我们称之为捐赠者控制的理论是一致的，该理论认为，捐赠者能够确定援助的目标和条件，使其与政府收入不可替代，从而能够更好地指导援助，以满足公民的需求。
Different theories about the impact of aid make distinct predictions about citizens’ attitudes toward foreign aid in recipient countries. We investigate their preferences toward aid and government projects in order to examine these different theories. Are citizens indifferent between development projects funded by their own government versus those funded by foreign aid donors, as aid capture theory suggests? To address this, in an experiment on a large, representative sample of Ugandan citizens, we randomly assigned the names of funding groups for actual forthcoming development projects and invited citizens to express support attitudinally and behaviorally. We find that citizens are significantly more willing to show behavioral support in favor of foreign aid projects compared to government programs, especially if they already perceive the government as corrupt or clientelist or if they are not supporters of the ruling party. They also trust donors more, think they are more effective, and do not consistently oppose aid conditionality. This experimental evidence is consistent with a theory that we call donor control which sees donors asbeing able to target and condition aid so that it is not fungible with government revenues and thus to be able to better direct it to meet citizens’ needs.