Introducing women's political representation as an explanatory variable for aid utilization : An analysis of the influence of women's political representation on the utilization of foreign assistance

Abstract: This thesis investigates how women's political representation influences foreign aid utilization. While recent contributions show that the impact of foreign aid is highly dependent on the recipient government, there is still limited research on the relationship between women's political representation and aid utilization. Existing work within the research field of female political representation suggests that women are more likely to prioritize resource allocation towards healthcare and education and less likely to prioritize the military. Thus, women’s political representation is predicted to work as a moderating effect on aid utilization, whereby increases in female representation is associated with more aid resources being allocated towards healthcare and education and less to the military. To test the relationship(s) implied, this thesis employs multiple regression analysis on a time series data set of 102 aid-receiving countries from 2000-2017. The hypothesis that women's political representation has a moderating effect on aid utilization could not be supported by the regression analysis. The results do however indicate that female representation in the recipient countries influences government allocation in general.