Data and Code for Democracy and Aid Donorship

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
inputdata			11/19/2020 06:32:AM
outputdata			01/18/2021 10:07:AM
Analyse data.do	text/x-stata-syntax	55.7 KB	01/18/2021 05:10:AM
Democracy and Aid Donorship replication file MAIN.do	text/x-stata-syntax	859 bytes	10/20/2020 05:08:AM
License.txt	text/plain	14.9 KB	01/19/2021 10:40:PM
Prepare data.do	text/x-stata-syntax	57.8 KB	01/18/2021 05:10:AM
Prepare_figure1_figureC1.R	text/x-r-syntax	2 KB	01/18/2021 01:00:AM
README TO Democracy and Aid Donorship.pdf	application/pdf	752.4 KB	01/19/2021 10:36:PM
config.do	text/x-stata-syntax	2 KB	06/23/2020 01:10:PM

Project Citation:

Budjan, Angelika J., and Fuchs, Andreas. Data and Code for Democracy and Aid Donorship. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-10-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/E120068V2

Project Description

Summary:

README TO Democracy and Aid Donorship, Budjan, Angelika J., and Andreas Fuchs, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

AEA Data and Code Repository project ID: 120068

The replication material consists of four Stata do files, 20 raw input data files, five analysis datasets, and two shapefiles contained in the “outputdata” folder. Analyses have been performed with Stata version 14.0. Running the master do file (“Democracy and Aid Donorship replication file MAIN.do”) will call the configuration do file (“config.do”), the data cleaning do file (“Prepare data.do”), and the data analysis do file (“Analyse data.do”). The configuration do file creates five new folders: the “ado” folder where necessary ado files are stored; the “outputdata” folder where the generated analysis datasets are stored; the “tables” folder where results tables are stored; the “figures” folder where generated figures are stored and the “tempdata” folder where temporary datasets are stored and which are automatically deleted by the end of the script.

In order to run the master do file (“Democracy and Aid Donorship replication file MAIN.do”), insert the correct folder path in line 19.

The data analyses do file (“Analyse data.do”) generates four regression datasets in the “outputdata” folder. We had to omit some raw databases from the “input” data folder due to copyright reasons (Marshall et al. 2016; Banks and Wilson 2016; FreedomHouse 2016; Bormann et al. 2017; Correlates of War Project 2017). Since several “input” datasets are omitted from the download package, the do file will neither run without error nor produce the complete datasets required for the analysis – which we however provide in their entirety in the “outputdata” folder. The four regression datasets are the following: ·

“new_donors_MAIN.dta” is needed to create Tables 1-3, Figures 2-4, and most tables and figures of the Online Appendix ·
“new_donors_limited.dta” and “new_donors_3yaverages.dta” are needed to create the robustness test of Table B3 in the Online Appendix ·
“new_donors_sample_firstaid.dta” is needed to create robustness tests of Table C2 in the Online Appendix.

Figure 1 and Appendix Figure C1 were not produced with STATA. Data from our New Aid Donors Database was merged with country boundaries and saved in shapefile format in the output folder using R. This step can be replicated with the file “Prepare_figure1_figureC1.R.” To run the code, insert the correct folder path in line 9. To create the maps, open the resulting files in QGIS and format the layer “donoryear” as in the manuscript.

Lines 510-544 of “Prepare_data.do” produce our main variable of interest “democracy” as a temporary datafile (“tempdata\acemoglu_democ.dta”), using the inputs Polity IV Project version 4 (Marshall et al. 2016), Bjørnskov-Rode regime data (Bjørnskov and Rode 2020), and Freedom in the World Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses (Freedom House 2016). This file is then merged to the final analysis datasets. Since our analysis was performed prior to the publication of Acemoglu et al. (2019) and since we require a longer time period for our analysis, the employed data is our own replication and extension of Acemoglu et al.’s democracy variable. To allow users to generate Figure A3 without having executed “Prepare_data.do” before, we also included “acemoglu_democ.dta” in the outdata folder.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: foreign aid; Official Development Assistance ; aid donorship; aid institutions; new donors; democracy

JEL Classification:
      F35 Foreign Aid
      F55 International Institutional Arrangements
      H77 Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism; Secession
      H87 International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
      O19 International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
      O57 Comparative Studies of Countries

Geographic Coverage: global

Time Period(s): 1950 – 2015

Collection Date(s): 3/2016 – 8/2017

Universe: All sovereign states in the world with a population larger than 300,000 inhabitants

Data Type(s): event/transaction data

Methodology

Data Source:

We constructed a questionnaire in the English language to collect data from official administrative bodies of all 175 sovereign states with a population larger than 300,000 inhabitants that are listed in the State System Membership database (Correlates of War Project 2017). We translated the original questionnaire into four additional world languages to increase the response probability (Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish). In the first stage, we sent the questionnaire to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or the Ministry of Development Cooperation) of each country. If this inquiry was unsuccessful despite follow-up e-mails, we e-mailed the questionnaire in the second stage to another ministry of relevance (such as the Ministry of Finance), the respective embassy in Germany (the country where this study was carried out), or both. In the third stage, we contacted the relevant institutions by phone. Using this procedure, we were able to gather information for 94 countries. In the fourth stage, we verified and completed our data with information provided on government websites, the academic literature, the grey literature, and media reports. The reliance on secondary sources is low, with data for only 25 countries fully relying on such information.

Unit(s) of Observation: Country-event

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V2 [2021-10-25]

V1 [2020-06-26]

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