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Government Department

Government Department

Project Level Aid Database (PLAID)

For the past five years Professor Michael Tierney has been working with undergraduate students in Government, International Relations, Economics, Environmental Studies, and Public Policy to build the most comprehensive database in the world on foreign aid projects.  The project attempts to identify and categorize the entire population of official development assistance projects from 1970 to the present and records information at the project-level, hence the name, Project Level Aid Database (PLAID).

The PLAID database covers bilateral donors, such as the U.S., France, Japan, and the UK, as well as multilateral development agencies such as the World Bank, UN, and the European Union.  The database currently contains over 470,000 projects and has been used by researchers to explain aid allocation patterns and to assess aid effectiveness.  The project has been funded primarily by a National Science Foundation Grant and supports the research of Tierney, Rob Hicks (Econ), and Timmons Roberts (Sociology/Environmental Studies).

The entire project was inspired by the Honors Thesis of Brad Parks (‘03).  The thesis led directly to the database project and to a book published by Oxford University Press in 2008 entitled: Greening Aid?  Understanding Environmental Assistance in Developing Countries.  Since the creation of the database in 2005, it has been used by four other undergraduate researchers writing honors theses including Joanna Watkins (05), Stephanie Reed (06), Rob Landicho (08), and Ryan Powers (08).  Articles by PLAID researchers have been published in a variety of academic journals including International Organization, the Journal of International Relations and Development, and Global Environmental Politics. 

Other students who have worked on the project have used their experience to land jobs on Wall Street, the EPA, the World Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the United Nations, the State Department, and the Peace Corps.  Over 50 students have worked on this project and all of them are listed on the PLAID project website. These students have been involved in every aspect of the research process including collecting primary data, interviewing development staff and government officials in both the U.S. and developing countries, coding development projects, analyzing statistical data, presenting research at professional conferences, and writing books and articles.

The PLAID team is currently collaborating with the Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation to make this database publicly accessible so that it might enhance donor and recipient coordination in the aid delivery process.

For more information about the PLAID project see http://www.wm.edu/irtheoryandpractice/plaid/