A meta-analysis of development aid allocation: The effects of income level and population size

The effect on aid allocation of the income level and population size in the recipient country is analyzed. The data show that both variables have a significant and robust negative effect, but they explain only a small part of the variation. The main thrust of the paper is a meta-analysis of the large aid allocation literature, where the impact of the two variables is analyzed, controlled for a wide range of factors. By the standard meta-tests, the results converge to much the same as found in our own analysis of the data. The poverty effect is in accordance with stated policies of all donors, while the population effect appears contrary to the stated policy of all donors. The main multilateral donors do not influence this pattern. Indeed, the evidence suggests that the poverty effect is smaller for the multilateral donors. Six main hypotheses are presented to explain the population effect.