Social capital, egalitarianism and foreign aid allocations

This paper explores the issue of whether countries that have higher levels of social capital, and/or are more egalitarian, are more generous in terms of donating foreign aid. The empirical results suggest that in countries with a more equal distribution of income, aid allocations by the government are higher, but donations to non‐government aid organisations by the private sector are lower. There is a positive correlation between the level of social capital and aid allocated by both the government and the private sector. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.