How do Aid for Trade inflows and design affect developing countries' levels of income inequality?

贸易援助（AfT）是旨在帮助发展中国家更好地利用全球贸易利益的官方发展援助（ODA） （Busse et al., 2012）。作为官方发展援助的组成部分，农业援助必须以促进发展或福利为主要目标（Ali et al., 1999）。自成立以来，援助基金在绝对值和相对于其他官方发展援助组成部分方面都显示出前所未有的增长。因此，国际社会对衡量该倡议的效力越来越感兴趣。AfT文献中出现了两条清晰的工作线索。第一种广义上属于新古典经济学流派，对定量工作表现出强烈的偏好，对与贸易相关的结果（例如，贸易的时间和成本、出口量、出口收入）有狭隘的关注。结果基本上是积极的，但很少有人讨论这些可能（不）转化为改善发展和社会经济条件的可能性（见Cali和Velde, 2011； Busse等人，2012；Ferro等人，2014）。第二股更接近政治科学学科，更关注福利和发展问题，在规范上对AfT倡议提出了问题。批评者认为，AfT主要是由捐助者自己的商业利益驱动的，AfT话语的前提（即帮助发展中国家完成WTO谈判的财政援助）在道德上是有问题的，因为这些义务往往会损害他们的发展前景（Langan & Scott, 2014）。第一行工作未能提出令人信服的理由，说明为什么AfT作为官方发展援助的组成部分占有一席之地，以及为什么它应该有利于发展，而是令人信服地建立在出口增加和贸易成本降低将不可避免地改善社会经济条件的假设之上。另一方面，第二行尚未从经验上检验他们的批评以及这些批评对发展中国家AfT与社会经济条件之间关系的影响。本项目旨在通过实证分析AfT在发展方面的优点，特别是关注收入不平等指标，来搭建这一桥梁。因此，本项目将回答“贸易援助的流入和设计如何影响发展中国家的收入不平等水平”这一研究问题。，采用混合方法。

Aid for Trade (AfT) is Official Development Assistance (ODA) targeted at helping developing countries better harness the benefits from global trade (Busse et al., 2012). As an ODA component, AfT must have, as its main objective, the promotion of development or welfare (Ali et al., 1999).Since its establishment, AfT has shown unprecedented growth, both in absolute terms and relative to other ODA components. Accordingly, the international community has become increasingly interested in measuring the effectiveness of the initiative.Two clear strands of work have emerged in the AfT literature. The first one broadly belongs to the school of neoclassical economics and shows a strong preference for quantitative work, with a narrow focus on trade-related outcomes (e.g., time and cost of trade, export volume, export revenue). Results are largely positive, yet there is little discussion on the likelihood that these may (not) translate into improved development and socioeconomic conditions (see Cali and te Velde, 2011; Busse et al., 2012; Ferro et al., 2014).The second strand is closer to the discipline of political sciences and has paid more attention to the welfare and development concerns, normatively problematising the AfT initiative. Critics argue that AfT is mostly driven by donors' own commercial interests and that the premise of AfT discourse (i.e., financial assistance to help developing countries fulfil their WTO negotiations) is morally questionable since those obligations are often damaging to their development prospects (Langan & Scott, 2014).The first line of work fails to draw a convincing rationale for why AfT has a place as an ODA component and why it should be good for development, instead unconvincingly building on assumptions that increased exports and less costs to trade will inevitably lead to improved socioeconomic conditions. On the other hand, the second line has not yet empirically tested their criticisms and the effect these have on the relationship between AfT and socioeconomic conditions for developing countries. This project aims to build this bridge by offering an empirical account of the development-oriented merits of AfT, in particular focusing on indicators of income inequality. Accordingly, this project will answer the research question 'how do Aid for Trade inflows and design affect developing countries' levels of income inequality?', using a mixed methods approach.