Burden Sharing in Support of the United Nations

Burden Sharing in Support of the United Nations
Lawrence R. Klein, University Of Pennsylvania
Kanta Marwah, Carleton University

Acknowledgement: An early version of the paper was presented in a seminar at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, February 26, 1997. We are thankful to the participants for many useful and constructive comments. Dr. Pingfan Hong computed the estimates in Appendix B and we are grateful to him. We are also indebted to Troy Joseph and Henry Ma for computational assistance.

June 9, 1997
The fact that some member nations are in arrears in their contribution to the annual support of the United Nations has put the financial position of the United Nations in the public eye. The Charter of the United Nations states simply, "The expenses of the Organization shall be borne by the Members as apportioned by the General Assembly." It provides no guidelines on the principles of apportionment. The purpose of this paper is to deal with some economic aspects of such apportionment. Specifically, our intention is to examine some objective criteria and related amounts of apportionment of financial burden for support of the United Nations among the members. To a large extent, this issue is approached from an economic point of view. Political aspects, although of the greatest importance, are not at the center of attention, here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Orders of Magnitudes

II. Principles and Methodology of Assessment

III. Exemptions, Allowances, and Special Considerations

IV. Some Estimates of Progressive Formulas

V. Who Pays What? Further Analysis

VI. Conclusions

Appendix A

Appendix B

Yale University Library | MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies | UN Depository Libraries

I.	Orders of Magnitudes
II.	Principles and Methodology of Assessment
III.	Exemptions, Allowances, and Special Considerations
IV.	Some Estimates of Progressive Formulas
V.	Who Pays What? Further Analysis
VI.	Conclusions
	Appendix A
	Appendix B