Democracy and Aid‐Led Development: Analysis With Dispersion Measure of Democracy and Korea's Knowledge Sharing Project Outcome

ABSTRACT This study aimed to empirically reveal the effect of democracy on the partner country's developmental policy decisions using the uniquely established database of Korea's Knowledge Sharing Project (KSP) outcome and dispersion measures of democracy. Applying a bivariate probit model, we estimated the effect of democracy on the outcome of more than 500 KSPs. Instead of the often‐used central tendency measure of democracy, we employed the dispersion measure to incorporate the multifaceted aspects of democracy. The analysis result conveys the importance of balanced development of democracy components and how the disproportionately matured procedural democracy can undermine the possibility of KSP adoption.