China’s Foreign Aid,Recipient Countries’Economic Growth,and the Mediating Effect of Aid in Infrastructure China’s Foreign Aid,Recipient Countries’Economic Growth,and the Mediating Effect of Aid in Infrastructure

摘要

Based on the panel data of China’s foreign aid in 2003-2014 from AidData,this paper empirically investigates the relationship between China’s foreign aid and economic growth in recipient countries.Using the principal component analysis(PCA),the authors propose a variable,i.e.the infrastructure index,to measure the effects of aid on the economic growth of recipient countries.This study shows that aid from China has significantly improved the level of economic growth in recipient countries,which provides a new evidence of China’s aid effectiveness.Through analysis of the ways by which aid in infrastructure induces economic growth,the authors conclude that the improvement of local infrastructure accounts for 55.30%of the aggregate economic growth effect of China’s aid to recipient countries.