Field:
    Comparative and International Political Economy and Methodology

Dissertation Title:
    Political Regimes and Foreign Aid: How Aid Affects Growth and Democratization

Committee:
    Barbara Geddes (chair), Ronald Rogowski, Jeffrey Lewis, Aaron Tornell (Economics)

Date of Completion:
    June 2007

Contact Information:
    Joseph Wright
    UCLA Political Science Department
    4289 Bunche Hall
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1472
    Phone: 310-825-4331
    Fax: 310-825-0778

Curriculum Vitae:
    Download PDF Version

Dissertation Summary:
    This dissertation explains how foreign aid affects economic growth in recipient country dictatorships and democracies, and then examines whether foreign aid helps or hinders democratization. The first three chapters investigate how domestic political constraints in both dictatorships and democracies provide aid recipients with incentives over how they use aid. Here I explain how legislatures and time horizons in authoritarian regimes, and political institutions such as the level of personalism and the type of executive in democracies, affect the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth. From a policy perspective, understanding the effect of these political constraints is the missing piece to the aid-growth puzzle. In the final chapter, I argue that foreign aid to dictators with large support coalitions induces democratization because these dictators are more likely to remain in power should they hold free elections. In contrast, foreign aid to dictators with small coalitions entrenches authoritarian rule.

Research Interests:
    Comparative Political Economy, International Political Economy, Globalization and Political/Economic Development, Quantitative Methods

Teaching Interests:
    Comparative Politics (Intro, CPE, Latin American Politics, Political Economy of Development, Democratization/Political Development); International Relations (Intro, IPE, International Development); Research Design and Methods (Undergraduate and Graduate)