Can’t Buy Me Love (with Foreign Aid)

Abstract

Does foreign aid improve the image of donors in recipient countries? Studies have found weak overall effects, but also positive correlations that are highly conditional on donor and recipient factors, like program characteristics and regime type. Our statistical and case study analysis of US foreign aid leads to a more skeptical perspective. We assess the impact of foreign aid on public opinion of the United States in twenty recipient countries during the Obama and Trump presidencies, using Pew Research Center survey data. A multi-level longitudinal analysis of individual and country-level variables finds that correlations between aid disbursements and foreign public opinion disappear when controlling for attitudes about the US president. These results are corroborated in crucial case studies of Kenya and Turkey. The findings are important for governments that use aid to influence foreign opinion and for scholarship that considers aid to be a source of soft power.