Using panel data for the period 1995-2008, we model the aid allocation decisions of the three largest official donors of humanitarian aid: the United States government, the United Kingdom government and the European Commission. We find evidence that donor decisions depend on both the recipient's need and the donor's economic interest, but with marked asymmetries...

Time series analyses generally rely on having a relatively high frequency of consistent and reliable data to work with. However for many of the South Pacific Island Nations (SPINS), data on major macroeconomic series, like GDP, are typically available only annually from the early 1980s. This paper empirically estimates quarterly GDP data from annual series...

In light of the continued diplomatic truce with Taiwan, this paper reassesses the drivers of China’s engagement in the Pacific, examines trends in China’s aid giving and associated concerns, as well as survey results of China’s follow-through on aid delivery since 2005. This is the fourth in a series of Lowy Institute reports on China’s...

We have used the DNA sequences of Pacific topshells, belonging to the genera Diloma, Melagraphia and Austrocochlea, to ascertain how this group became established over a large area of the Pacific. Phylogenetic analyses of three genes revealed that Pacific topshell species belong to three major clades. The first two clades, including the most basal clade...

Despite anecdotal evidence that the quality of governance in recipient countries affects the allocation of international health aid, there is no quantitative evidence on the magnitude of this effect, or on which dimensions of governance influence donor decisions. We measure healthaid flows over 2001-2005 for 87 aid recipients, matching aid data with measures of different...