In a paper published in Economics & Politics, Allison Carnegie and co-authors, including Kimberly Howe, examine the impact of foreign aid on governance by non-state actors, specifically rebels.

The study evaluates this impact in the context of the Syrian civil war, by analyzing data collected from residents of 27 rebel-held communities inside Syria from 2014 to 2016.

The authors find that aid can improve public opinions of governing institutions, if those institutions are embedded in the networks, aspirations, and experiences of the communities they govern.

In contrast, aid has a negative effect in areas ruled by institutions who are not embraced by the communities they govern as rightful rulers.

These findings appear in the paper, “The effects of foreign aid on rebel governance: Evidence from a large-scale US aid program in Syria,” which was one of the top 10 most-cited papers published by Economics & Politics from 2022 through 2023.

Read the paper here.