China and the World Bank - How Contrasting Development Approaches Affect the Stability of African States

Abstract

China's development model challenges the approaches of traditional Western donors like the World Bank. We argue that both aim at stability, but differ in the norms propagated to achieve that. Using fixed effects and IV estimations, we analyze a broad range of subnational stability measures in Africa. Aid by both the WB and China does not increase outright conflict nor any type of citizen protest, on average. Both even reduce outright conflict by governments against civilians. Still, Chinese aid is associated with more government repression and an increased acceptance of authoritarian norms, while WB projects strengthen democratic values. JEL-Codes: H770, N900.

Strategic Allocation of Development Projects in Post-Conflict Regions: A Gender Perspective for Colombia

“…So far, there is no clear consensus on the relationship. While several studies find that development cooperation can increase conflict [12][13][14][15][16], this is not confirmed by other studies [17,18], or is only evident for certain sectors [19] or types of intervention [20]. Of particular interest in terms of the present study is the spatial allocation of development projects in post-conflict settings.…”

Can Aid Buy Foreign Public Support? Evidence from Chinese Development Finance

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“…This dataset is a widely used data source in analyses that examine the nature, allocation, and effects of Chinese development finance. Contributions in economics and political science includeHsiang and Sekar (2016),Hernandez (2017),Isaksson and Kotsadam (2018a,b),Gehring et al (2019),Anaxagorou et al (2020),Isaksson (2020),Martorano et al (2020),Eichenauer et al (2021),Horn et al (2021),Iacoella et al (2021),Zeitz (2021), andCervellati et al (2022), among others.16 In September 2021, AidData presented an updated version of this dataset, which also covers the years 2015-2017(Custer et al 2021. However, the lack of precise geographic information prevents us from including these data in our analysis.17 We thus use project locations with precision codes 1-4.…”

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“…In assessing the impacts of aid on local wealth using micro‐level geospatial data, this study adds important evidence to the burgeoning studies evaluating aid's effect on varied indicators (see Appiah‐Kubi & Jarrett, 2023; Atitianti, 2023; Atitianti & Asiamah, 2023; Greßer & Stadelmann, 2021). Additionally, focusing on aid from China and the World Bank allows us to assess the effect of aid from two diverse donors (Gehring et al, 2019).…”