Aid Preferences under Criminal Governance: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Haiti
Society and economy
This paper presentation is a part of GLD's Work-in-Progress Workshop, 2025 Spring Series.
This paper presentation is a part of GLD's Work-in-Progress Workshop, 2025 Spring Series.
Who should be responsible for the allocation of external resources in poor, fragile, aid-dependent states when citizens can only chose between sub-optimal entities? Do citizens in aid-recipient countries prefer that donor direct funds are delivered to state actors versus nonstate actors? How does the presence of gangs influence these preferences? To address this, we make use of an experiment in an online survey (N = 2000) in Haiti, an aid-dependent country with increased levels of gang-related violence. We randomly vary the donor-recipient actors and ask respondents to express their support. We find that citizens, especially those living in gang-controlled areas, are more supportive of disaster-relief and reconstruction funds to be allocated to local authorities, compared to the central government and foreign NGOs. Our findings have important implications for the delivery and effectiveness of foreign aid in gang-ridden countries like Haiti.
The GLD Work-in-Progress Workshop is designed to help scholars with ongoing papers or projects by providing feedback, suggestions, and advice during a one-hour-long workshop. And all participants are, of course, encouraged to attend several workshops to reciprocate the helpful feedback.