ABSTRACT
Summary: Small countries receive more development assistance per capita than large countries. This ‘small country bias’ is documented with data for official assistance in 1967-69. There are various non-economic considerations influencing the allocation of aid, some of which may favour small countries. On the other hand, there are strong economic reasons why small countries require more aid: diseconomies of scale in the administration of development plans, more limited possibilities of domestic diversification such as economic import substitution, exports of manufactures and the mobilisation of financial savings.
