Citizen Preferences and Public Goods: Comparing Preferences for Foreign Aid and Government Programs in Uganda

What do citizens in developing countries think about the foreign aid they receive? This paper investigates the perceptions and beliefs of Ugandan citizens toward foreign aid and government development projects. It also measures some of their behavior related to those beliefs. Using a survey experiment with behavioral outcomes, it examines citizen support and willingness to take action for projects managed and financed by foreign donors or the domestic government. There is much debate over the impact of foreign aid on developing countries. Many scholars have tried to answer this by looking at flows of aid and correlating them with various “objective” measures of economic or political development.