2014/10/02 by Jeroen Joly
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #International Development and Aid #Policy Transfer and Learning #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
paper · doi:10.1080/10584609.2013.879361
openalex publication_date 2014/10/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Bureaucrats are considered to play a determining role in how much media signals influence the allocation of foreign aid. As foreign aid decision-making is assumed to be a predominantly bureaucratic matter, bureaucratic responsiveness to media has often been concluded from the observation that foreign aid responds to media attention. Yet, studying this bureaucratic responsiveness directly has proven to be a challenging task due to the difficulties in quantitatively measuring bureaucratic activities. This study examines the different determinants of foreign aid in Belgium from 1995–2008 and addresses the question of bureaucratic responsiveness to media directly by isolating aid that is exclusively decided by the bureaucracy.