Humanitarian Aid and Political Motives
C. Bommer, A. Dreher & M. Prez-Alvarez, Vox EU
International humanitarian aid plays an important role in the response to natural disasters. This column argues that political motives play a role in the allocation of aid. Focusing on the allocation of US humanitarian assistance, it shows that disasters that affect the birth regions of leaders of recipient countries receive substantially more funding than other comparable disasters. This suggests that there is a home bias' in humanitarian aid.