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

贸易援助（AfT）是官方发展援助（ODA），旨在帮助发展中国家更好地利用全球贸易带来的好处（Busse等人，2012年）。作为官方发展援助的一个组成部分，贸易援助的主要目标必须是促进发展或福利（Ali等人，1999).自设立以来，贸易援助无论是在绝对值上还是相对于其他官方发展援助组成部分而言，都出现了前所未有的增长。因此，国际社会对衡量这一举措的有效性越来越感兴趣，贸易援助文献中出现了两个明确的工作方向。第一种主要属于新古典经济学派，表现出对定量工作的强烈偏好，狭隘地关注与贸易有关的结果（例如，贸易时间和成本、出口量、出口收入）。结果在很大程度上是积极的，但很少讨论这些可能（不）转化为改善的发展和社会经济条件的可能性（见卡利和te Velde，2011年; Busse等人，2012; Ferro等人，2014).第二部分更接近政治学学科，更加关注福利和发展问题，从规范上对贸易援助倡议提出问题。批评者认为，贸易援助主要是由捐助者自己的商业利益驱动的，贸易援助话语的前提（即，提供财政援助以帮助发展中国家完成世贸组织谈判）在道义上是有问题的，因为这些义务往往损害它们的发展前景（Langan和Scott，2014年）.第一条工作路线未能提出令人信服的理由，说明为什么贸易援助可以作为官方发展援助的一个组成部分，为什么它应该有利于发展，相反，这是建立在出口增加和贸易成本降低将不可避免地导致社会经济条件改善的假设之上的，缺乏说服力。另一方面，第二条线尚未对他们的批评以及这些批评对贸易援助与发展中国家社会经济条件之间关系的影响进行实证检验。该项目旨在通过对贸易援助面向发展的优点进行实证说明，特别是侧重于收入不平等指标，从而搭建这一桥梁。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程度”的研究问题。”，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.