Aid Allocation through Various Official and Private Channels: Need, Merit, and Self-Interest as Motives of German Donors

SummaryThe previous literature largely ignores the heterogeneity of aid channels used by each single donor country. We estimate Tobit models to assess the relative importance of recipient need, merit, and self-interest of donors for various channels of official and private German aid across a large sample of recipient countries in 2005–07. Our findings underscore the need for a disaggregated analysis of aid allocation. Aid channels differ significantly in the extent to which need and merit are taken into account. Yet, the German case does not reveal unambiguously superior aid channels.