Principal determinants of territorial allocation of the Slovak Republic’s bilateral development aid: Path-dependent trajectory?

Abstract

Principal determinants of territorial allocation of the Slovak Republic's bilateral development aid: Path-dependent trajectory? Slovakia started to provide bilateral official development assistance (ODA) in 2003 and became a fully-fledged member of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD in 2013. This paper empirically examines the main determinants influencing the territorial selection and allocation of the Slovak Republic's ODA during the period 2003 -2019.To reach the aim of this paper, we apply regression analysis with Probit and Tobit models and variables approximating recipient needs, donor interests as well as recipient merit. The results indicate that the allocation of Slovak aid is significantly determined by closer historical ties, geographical proximity, the existence of a Slovak embassy, quality of social policies and the size of population in the recipient countries, as well as the inertia in policy decision-making on aid allocation. This suggests that the Slovak Republic's ODA follows a path-dependent trajectory as most of its assistance traditionally flows to geographically closer countries with similar historical experiences from the communist and subsequent transition period, regardless of developmental needs of the poorest countries.