The purpose of this thesis is to examine what affects the allocation of official
development assistance (ODA) by Asian Development Bank. This thesis pays close
attention to the rise of a variety of non-state donors in the field of international
develo...
The purpose of this thesis is to examine what affects the allocation of official
development assistance (ODA) by Asian Development Bank. This thesis pays close
attention to the rise of a variety of non-state donors in the field of international
development cooperation in which the states usually have played important roles.
Among these non-state donors, this study focuses on aid allocation of ADB which
aims to help economic and social development of countries in Asia-Pacific.
Most existing studies that examine determinants of donors’ aid distribution
stress the socio-economic needs of recipient countries and the political, economic,
and security interests of donor countries. However, an analysis on aid allocation
by ADB, a multilateral development bank, requires us to examine factors that
have been largely unexplored in the previous works. In this regard, this study
takes a closer look at factors that might have influence on ADB’s decision to
allocate its aid to recipient countries. More specifically, it divide factors into
internal and external factors. As for the internal factors, the number of directors
of ADB from each member recipient country and its voting rights are taken into
consideration. As for the external factors, it examines if aid allocation by Japan
and World Bank as peer donors affect ADB’s aid allocation in the context of the
growing international norm of “aid harmonization” in the field of international
development cooperation. Control variables include GDP per capita, population,
infant mortality rate, and civil liberty based on previous works. The analysis
period covers from 2000 to 2015. The panel regression analysis is conducted
using random effect models and panel corrected standard error (PCSE) models.
The statistical analyses show that ADB’s aid allocation is influenced by the
internal factors as well as the World Bank’s aid allocation. First, regarding the
internal factors, the number of directors from a recipient country positively affects
aid allocation to this recipient. However, the voting rights of a recipient country
is negatively associated with ADB’s aid allocation. Both are statistically
significant. The negative impact of voting rights on aid allocation relates to the
voting right allocation system in which the rights to vote of a country are
proportional to economic strength of the country because the rights are determined
by the subscribed capital to ADB. Second, among external factors the aid
allocation by World Bank is found to have a positive effect on ADB’s aid
allocation, which is statistically significant. In the case of Japanese aid, the
direction of its effect is positive, but not statistical significant. As for the control
variables, it finds that GDP per capita of a recipient country has a statistically
significant and negative effect on the aid allocation to the country.
This thesis empirically analyzes that the internal factors related to ADB’s
decision making and the external factors related to the aid harmonization have
significant impacts on its aid allocation, which is unexplored in previous studies.
In this respect, this study contributes positively to the study of international
development cooperation as it empirically examines what affect aid allocation by a
multilateral development bank. Furthermore, it has also policy implications in that
a strategic approach to multilateral institutions such as appointing and promoting
more directors in and more financial contribution to multilateral institutions might
enhance a country’s voice in their aid allocation.