Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Bribery at the United Nations

This is what I call really interesting evidence... did Mexico get its "fair share"  when we were in the Security Council? (bullets are mine)

How Much is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and
Bribery at the United Nations

By ILYANA KUZIEMKO AND ERIC WERKER - Harvard University
http://www.people.hbs.edu/ewerker/jennifer/Security_Council.pdf

Abstract
  • Ten of the fifteen seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. Using country-level panel data, we find that a country’s foreign aid receipts rise substantially when it is elected to the Security Council: on average, U.S. aid increases by 54 percent and U.N. development aid rises by 7 percent.
  • We find that the positive effect of Security Council membership on aid is much greater during years in which key diplomatic events take place, when members’ votes are likely to be especially valuable.
  • Further, the increase in aid is shown to begin the year a country is elected to the council and to disappear after its membership ends.
  • We find evidence that the effect of council membership on U.S. aid is especially large for dictatorships and U.S. allies, suggesting that the United States seeks to form alliances with the council members who are cheapest to bribe.
  • Finally, the connection between U.N. aid and council membership seems to be driven by UNICEF, an aid organization over which the United States has historically exerted much control.

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