National culture and the distribution of foreign aid

Authors

  • Phuong-Tra Vu Centre for Applied Economics and Business Research
  • Phung Bao Ngoc Van Foreign Trade University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.10.4.2021.359-368

Keywords:

Foreign Aid, National Culture

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between a country’s national culture and the level of aid it grants to other countries. We rely on Hofstede’s culture framework to quantify national culture and find that national culture and aid are significantly related. Specifically, we show that countries having high power distance, high masculinity and high uncertainty avoidance cultures appear to refrain from engaging in foreign assistance programmes. On the other hand, high individualistic-culture countries tend to provide greater levels of foreign aid. Overall, the results imply that national culture matters in shaping the donation behaviour of aid providers.

References

Adler, N.J., 1997. International Dimensions of Organizational Behaviour, Cincinnati, Ohio: SouthWestern College Publishing.

Ali, A.A.G. Malwanda, C. Suliman, Y., 1999. Official development assistance to Africa: an overview. Journal of African Economies. 8(4), 504–527.

Herbig, P., 1994. The innovation matrix: Culture and structure prerequisites to innovation. Westport, CT: Quorum.

Ho, F.N. Wang, H.D. Vitell, S.J., 2012. A Global Analysis of Corporate Social Performance: The Effects of Cultural and Geographic Environments. Journal of Business Ethics. 107, 423–433.

Hofstede, G., 1980. Culture’s consequences—international differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, London: Sage Publications.

Hynes, W. Scott, S., 2013. The Evolution of Official Development Assistance: Achievements, Criticisms and a Way Forward. OECD Development Co-operation Working Papers, No. 12, OECD Publishing.

Licht, A.A., 2010. Coming into Money: The Impact of Foreign Aid on Leader Survival. Journal of Conflict Resolution. 54(1), 58–87.

Parboteeah, K.P. Addae, H.M. Cullen, J.B., 2012. Propensity to Support Sustainability Initiatives: A Cross-National Model. Journal of Business Ethics. 105:403–413.

Ringov, D. Zollo, M., 2007. The impact of national culture on corporate social performance. Corporate Governance. 7(4), 476-485.

Sato, Y., 1994. New Directions in Japanese Foreign Policy: Promoting Human Rights and Democracy in Asia—ODA Perspective, in The Politics of Democratization, Edward Friedman, ed., Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 102–124.

Schraeder, P.J. Steven, W.H. Taylor, B., 1998. Clarifying the Foreign Aid Puzzle: A Comparison of American, Japanese, French, and Swedish Aid Flows. World Politics. 50(2), 294–323.

Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1985). Masculinity inhibits helping in emergencies: Personality does predict the bystander effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(2), 420–428.

Tuman, J. Ayoub, A., 2004. The Determinants of Japanese Official Development Assistance in Africa: A Pooled Time Series Analysis. International Interactions. 30(1), 43-57.

Vitell, S.J. Festervand, T.A., 1987. Business ethics: Conflicts, practices and beliefs of industrial executives. Journal of Business Ethics. 6, 111–122.

Downloads

Published

09-12-2021

How to Cite

Vu, P.-T., & Van, P. B. N. (2021). National culture and the distribution of foreign aid . Economics and Business Letters, 10(4), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.10.4.2021.359-368

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 4 (2021): December

Section

Articles

License

The works published in this journal are subject to the following terms:

1. Oviedo University Press (the publisher) retains the property rights (copyright) of published works, and encourages and enables the reuse of the same under the license specified in paragraph 2.

© Ediuno. Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo / Oviedo University Press

2. The works are published in the online edition of the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derives 3.0 Spain (legal text). You can copy, use, distribute, transmit and publicly display, provided that: i) you cite the author and the original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work), ii) they are not used for commercial purposes, iii) mentions the existence and specifications of this license.

3. Conditions of self-archiving. The author can archive the post-print version of the article (publisher’s version) on the author’s personal website and/or on the web of  the institution where he belong, including a link to the page of the journal and putting the way of citation of the work. Economics and Business Letters and its URL https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/EBL/index are the only authorized source for correctly giving the reference of the publisher’s version in every mention of the article.