Why do some countries give foreign aid to poorer countries and what is its effect on recipient growth? Many decades of research has not provided definitive answers to either of these questions. One obstacle to answering these linked questions is that unobserved donor motivation may create an...

We develop a theoretical model showing that countercyclical transfers from a wealthy donor to a poorer recipient generate a signal of altruistic donor motivation. Using OECD foreign aid (ODA) data we find the signal present in approximately one-sixth of a large set of donor-recipient pairs. We...