Can Aid Buy Foreign Public Support? Evidence from Chinese Development Finance
Lukas Wellner, Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, and Austin M. Strange
Accepted for publication at Economic Development and Cultural Change
Abstract
Bilateral donors use foreign aid to pursue soft power. We test the effectiveness of aid in reaching this goal by leveraging a new dataset on the precise commitment, implementation, and completion dates of Chinese development projects. We use data from the Gallup World Poll for 126 countries over the 2006--2017 period and identify causal effects with (i) an event-study model that includes high-dimensional fixed effects, and (ii) instrumental-variables regressions that rely on exogenous variation in the supply of Chinese government financing over time. Our results are nuanced and depend on whether we focus on subnational jurisdictions, countries, or groupings of countries.
Working paper (March/April 2022)
In the media (newspapers, blogs)
Presentations at conferences and workshops
See also
Lukas Wellner, Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, and Austin M. Strange
Accepted for publication at Economic Development and Cultural Change
Abstract
Bilateral donors use foreign aid to pursue soft power. We test the effectiveness of aid in reaching this goal by leveraging a new dataset on the precise commitment, implementation, and completion dates of Chinese development projects. We use data from the Gallup World Poll for 126 countries over the 2006--2017 period and identify causal effects with (i) an event-study model that includes high-dimensional fixed effects, and (ii) instrumental-variables regressions that rely on exogenous variation in the supply of Chinese government financing over time. Our results are nuanced and depend on whether we focus on subnational jurisdictions, countries, or groupings of countries.
Working paper (March/April 2022)
In the media (newspapers, blogs)
Presentations at conferences and workshops
- 3rd International Conference on Globalization and Development, University of Göttingen, Germany (06/2021)
- Meeting of the European Public Choice Society, University of Lille, France (04/2021)
- GSIPE Virtual Conference "The International Political Economy of Aid and Development" (12/2020)
- Conference of the International Political Economy Society, Ohio State University, USA (10/2020)
- Beyond Basic Questions Workshop, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany (06/2019)
- GlaD Workshop, University of Göttingen, Germany (06/2019 and 10/2020)
See also
