Rewarding good political behavior: US aid, democracy, and human rights

Abstract We investigate whether the allocation of US aid is influenced by a recipient's democracy and human rights record. The analysis is done in two ways. First, a comprehensive meta-analysis of 284 estimates from 58 studies. Studies report a wide range of results, but the meta-analysis concludes that both human rights and democracy are clear motives for giving aid, with democracy being relatively more important. Second, a new primary study of the data corroborates that a greater share of the House of Representatives held by Democrats results in more aid allocated based on a recipient's democracy record.