Allocating AID to International Public Goods

Although discussion of international public goods (IPGs) and the need to finance them is of fairly recent vintage, donors have been granting aid, or official development assistance (ODA), in substantial quantities for many decades, and have always allocated some of this aid to financing public goods. IPGs have not suddenly appeared. International agricultural research and research on disease eradication, for example, have a long history and both have been financially supported by aid from donors.