Factors of Czech Aid Selection and Allocation: Panel Probit and Tobit Analysis

Abstract

Factors of Czech Aid Selection and Allocation: Panel Probit and Tobit AnalysisThe aim of our paper is to identify factors that infl uence the territorial selection and allocation of development aid of the Czech Republic. We applied random-eff ects probit and tobit models in our regression analysis which revealed that fl ows of Czech aid to individual developing countries are determined by variety of factors. Czech interests and mutual relations were mostly identifi ed as statistically signifi cant determinants, namely export volumes, closer historical relations and geographical proximity. The presence of Czech embassy in a country was not confi rmed as a signifi cant factor. The refl ection of recipients' needs in Czech aid selection and allocation is rather ambiguous. While Czech aid fl ows depend positively on total population and negatively on per capita income of recipient countries, they are positively infl uenced by the recipients' level of social development. Similarly, the Czech Republic tends to give (more) aid to more democratic and freer countries with lower institutional quality.Keywords: offi cial development assistance, foreign aid selection and allocations, random-eff ects tobit model, random-eff ects probit model, aid donor, aid recipient, Czech Republic JEL Classifi cation: F35, C24 , A10 ÚvodV roce 2013 vstoupila Česká republika do Výboru pro rozvojovou pomoc (Development Assistance Committee, DAC), součást Organizace pro hospodářskou spolupráci a rozvoj (OECD). Tento výbor je považován za nejdůležitější fórum pro koordinaci rozvojové spolupráce na mezinárodní úrovni. Česká republika se tak zařadila po bok nejvýznam-nějších světových dárců ofi ciální rozvojové pomoci (offi cial development assistance, ODA) 1 , čímž stvrdila svou pozici mezi tzv. novými, respektive vynořujícími se donory. Rozvojová 1 pomoc má také své nezastupitelné místo v rámci české zahraniční politiky. Celkový objem české ODA v roce 2014 činil 4,4 mld. Kč, tedy 0,11 % českého hrubého národního důchodu. Z této částky 70,5 % zamířilo do multilaterálních organizací (rozpočet Evropské unie, Evropský rozvojový fond, různé agencie a fondy Organizace spojených národů, Světová banka a další) a 29,5 % alokovala ČR na bilaterální bázi. Mezi pět největ-ších příjemců české ODA v roce 2014 patřila Ukrajina, Afghánistán, Moldavsko, Etiopie 1 *<?> Jaromír Harmáček (jaromir.harmacek@upol.cz), Miroslav Syrovátka (miroslav.syrovatka@upol.cz), Zdeněk Opršal (zdenek.oprsal@upol.cz), Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci , Přírodovědecká fakulta. 1Oficiální rozvojová pomoc (ODA) je definována jako toky prostředků do rozvojových zemí a do multilaterálních institucí, přičemž tyto toky jsou poskytnuty oficiálními (vládními) agenturami, jsou použity s cílem podpory rozvoje a mají zvýhodněný charakter, tj. obsahují určitou grantovou složkou.

Country selection and aid allocation: A case of the Czech Republic

“…The findings presented in the previous chapter suggest that both the selection of developing countries to the Czech development aid portfolio and the allocation of aid funds are driven by egoistic economic motives. This confirms the findings of the existing literature (Opršal and Krylová, 2010;Harmáček et al, 2017) that decision makers take into account the interest of the Czech economy and the exporters while setting up the framework of Czech development aid. Surprisingly, the motive of safety and prevention of migration did not prove statistically significant for the country selection suggesting that Czech economic interests play much bigger role that safety.…”

“…This variable is marked as CZEXP later in the analysis, the data were taken from the Comtrade database and are measured in USD current prices. The Czech Republic can help its exporters and promote their products through the development aid and it is expected based on the existing literature (Harmáček et al, 2017) that its influence on selection and aid allocation will be positive.…”

Is Foreign Aid Responsive to Environmental Needs and Performance of Developing Countries? Case Study of the Czech Republic.

“…However, this variation in significance levels can be also caused by different numbers of observations in the individual models. The findings from model (1) are in fact very similar to those of the total Czech aid [22,40], there are only minor differences (e.g., the trade links were a significant factor of the total Czech aid, as well as the geographical distance). In the rest of the models (2) to (8), the environmental variables have been added one-after-one alongside the set of the standard allocation variables: in the model (2), the freshwater variable has been added next to the set of standard variables, in the model (3), the freshwater variable has been removed and replaced by the dft variable, in the model (4), we have replaced the dft variable by the co2gdp variable, etc.…”

“…In line with the above-mentioned review of standard factors of aid allocation [25,[30][31][32][34][35][36][37][38][39] and taking into consideration previous research on aid allocations of post-communist Central European countries [33,40], we adopt the following default model in our research of determinants of Czech environmental aid over the period 2000-2015:…”

“…We opt for the tobit model not only because we must account for the zero allocations (since there are simply too many of them), but also because it can be readily used with panel data (although only with random effects). Moreover, the random-effect tobit model has already been employed to deal with the factors of Czech development assistance allocation [22,40], therefore we prefer to apply it once again so that the results on environmental aid are directly comparable to the ones on total aid.…”