Distortions in aid allocation of United Nations flash appeals: Evidence from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Vera Z. Eichenauer; Andreas Fuchs; Sven Kunze; Eric Strobl

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105023

Distortions in aid allocation of United Nations flash appeals: Evidence from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Vera Z. Eichenauer, Andreas Fuchs^*, Sven Kunze, Eric Strobl

^*Corresponding author for this work

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine the design and implementation of the United Nations Flash Appeal triggered in response to the highly destructive 2015 Nepal earthquake. We consider how local need and various distortions affect the proposed project number, the proposed financial amount, and the subsequent funding decision by aid donors. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which the allocation of this humanitarian assistance follows municipalities’ affectedness and their physical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. We then analyze potential ethnic, religious, and political distortions. Our results show that aid allocation is associated with geophysical estimates of the earthquake damage. Controlled for disaster impact, however, aid allocation shows little regard for the specific socio-economic and physical vulnerabilities. It is also worrisome that the allocation of the flash appeal commitments favors municipalities dominated by higher castes and disadvantages those with a greater distance to the Nepali capital Kathmandu.

Original language	English
Article number	105023
Journal	World Development
Volume	136
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105023
Publication status	Published - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Katja Michaelowa, Rainer Thiele, seminar participants at Heidelberg University, two anonymous referees of this journal, as well as conference and workshop participants at the Young Scientists Workshop of the VfS Research Group on Environmental and Resource Economics (University of Basel, February 2017), Columbia University's Alliance Graduate Summer School “Research Methods in Sustainable Development” (Columbia Global Centers Paris, May 2017), the Annual International Conference of the VfS Research Group on Development Economics (University of Goettingen, June 2017), and the Beyond Basic Questions Workshop (Gengenbach/Black Forest, August 2018) for very valuable comments. A special thanks to AidData for having compiled the geo-referenced data set on aid allocation after the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Eliana Chavarria, Laura Mahoney, Keonhi Son, Samuel Siewers, Franziska Volk, and Nicolas Wesseler provided excellent research assistance. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

Asia
Disaster relief
Earthquake
Humanitarian assistance
Nepal
United Nations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development
Development
Sociology and Political Science
Economics and Econometrics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105023

Cite this

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abstract = "We examine the design and implementation of the United Nations Flash Appeal triggered in response to the highly destructive 2015 Nepal earthquake. We consider how local need and various distortions affect the proposed project number, the proposed financial amount, and the subsequent funding decision by aid donors. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which the allocation of this humanitarian assistance follows municipalities{\textquoteright} affectedness and their physical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. We then analyze potential ethnic, religious, and political distortions. Our results show that aid allocation is associated with geophysical estimates of the earthquake damage. Controlled for disaster impact, however, aid allocation shows little regard for the specific socio-economic and physical vulnerabilities. It is also worrisome that the allocation of the flash appeal commitments favors municipalities dominated by higher castes and disadvantages those with a greater distance to the Nepali capital Kathmandu.",

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author = "Eichenauer, {Vera Z.} and Andreas Fuchs and Sven Kunze and Eric Strobl",

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language = "English",

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N2 - We examine the design and implementation of the United Nations Flash Appeal triggered in response to the highly destructive 2015 Nepal earthquake. We consider how local need and various distortions affect the proposed project number, the proposed financial amount, and the subsequent funding decision by aid donors. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which the allocation of this humanitarian assistance follows municipalities’ affectedness and their physical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. We then analyze potential ethnic, religious, and political distortions. Our results show that aid allocation is associated with geophysical estimates of the earthquake damage. Controlled for disaster impact, however, aid allocation shows little regard for the specific socio-economic and physical vulnerabilities. It is also worrisome that the allocation of the flash appeal commitments favors municipalities dominated by higher castes and disadvantages those with a greater distance to the Nepali capital Kathmandu.

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Distortions in aid allocation of United Nations flash appeals: Evidence from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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