This paper summarises research on aid allocation and effectiveness, highlighting the current findings of recent research on aid allocation to fragile states. Fragile states are defined by the donor community as those with either critically poor policies or poorly performing institutions, or...

This paper proposes that aid flowing to smaller (less populous) countries has a negative impact on the quality of institutions in terms of performance and policy as opposed to that flowing to larger countries, where evidence suggests that the impacts are positive. The analysis here suggests that...