Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access originally published online on December 3, 2008
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 2009 19(4):853-871; doi:10.1093/jopart/mun024
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The Strategic Games that Donors and Bureaucrats Play: An Institutional Rational Choice Analysis
National University of Singapore
Address correspondence to the author at sppaej{at}nus.edu.sg.
Foreign aid plays an important role in developing countries, but little is empirically known how it affects incentives of recipient bureaucracies. I provide a model and analytic case study to understand the strategic games that donors and bureaucrats play. My findings are broadly consistent with the theoretical expectations of institutional rational choice: bureaucrats attempt to ensure bureaucratic survival, whereas donors ensure growth of loan portfolio. These findings, however, are not consistent with the Samaritan's Dilemma and the Patron's Dilemma.