Aid and governance: impact of Chinese aid on the evaluation of government performance in sub-Saharan Africa

One of a government's primary responsibilities is to provide public goods and services for the benefit of citizens. A government that excels in such provision may therefore win favorable evaluations from its citizens. However, if external state and non-state actors through foreign aid issuance become providers of what citizens expect from their government, citizens may doubt their government's competence. In recent decades, China has become an important donor to Africa, providing the continent with several aid projects. Consequently, this study examines whether aid from China undermines citizens' evaluations of government performance. Geocoded data on Chinese aid projects are matched to 4 waves of Afrobarometer survey respondents from 31 sub-Saharan African countries. Using an instrumental variable estimation, the findings indicate that Chinese aid undermines the evaluation of government performance. Testing for the mechanism through which this effect manifests, the results suggest Chinese aid engenders corruption perceptions and erodes trust.Eine der Hauptaufgaben einer Regierung besteht darin, öffentliche Güter und Dienstleistungen zum Nutzen der Bürger bereitzustellen. Eine Regierung, die sich bei der Bereitstellung solcher Güter und Dienstleistungen auszeichnet, kann daher von ihren Bürgern positiv bewertet werden. Wenn jedoch externe staatliche und nichtstaatliche Akteure durch Entwicklungshilfe das anbieten, was die Bürger von ihrer Regierung erwarten, können die Bürger an der Kompetenz ihrer Regierung zweifeln. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich China zu einem wichtigen Geber für Afrika entwickelt und den Kontinent mit mehreren Hilfsprojekten unterstützt. In dieser Studie wird daher untersucht, ob die Hilfe aus China die Bewertung der Regierungsleistung durch die Bürger untergräbt. Geocodierte Daten über chinesische Hilfsprojekte werden mit 4 Wellen von Afrobarometer-Umfragen in 31 afrikanischen Ländern südlich der Sahara (SSA) abgeglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die chinesische Hilfe die Bewertung der Regierungsleistung untergräbt. Bei der Prüfung des Mechanismus, durch den sich dieser Effekt manifestiert, deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die chinesische Hilfe die Wahrnehmung von Korruption fördert und das Vertrauen untergräbt

Research on Improving Online Purchase Intention of Poverty-Alleviation Agricultural Products in China: From the Perspective of Institution-Based Trust

Poverty alleviation by consumption is a powerful way to help the poor people get rid of poverty, which plays a significant role in China's rural revitalization. However, the achievement of poverty alleviation by consumption mostly depends on government procurement, and the enthusiasm of customers to participate is low, facing the severe challenge of poor sustainability. Helping the poor is the most common motivation for customers to buy poverty-alleviation agricultural products (PAAP). However, as the negative events of poverty alleviation such as “tragic marketing” constantly appear in news reports, customers' trust in sellers has been seriously damaged. The psychological protection system for fear of being cheated hinders customers' purchase intention. Therefore, we believed that trust is an important factor in enhancing customers' purchase intention of PAAP. Customers buy PAAP mainly through online channels, and institution-based trust is the most important way to generate trust in online channels. Thus, this study investigated the institutional mechanisms that affect customers' trust in the sellers of PAAP and discussed the influence of trust on the online purchase intention of PAAP. Data were obtained through a questionnaire survey and tested empirically. The results showed that the effectiveness of the user feedback mechanism, platform supervision mechanism, product traceability mechanism, and product certification mechanism can enhance customers' purchase intention by enhancing their trust. Individual trust tendency positively regulated the relationship between the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms and consumer trust. The conclusion can not only provide new theoretical guidance for the practice of poverty alleviation by consumption in China but also offer new ideas for the poverty alleviation undertakings in other countries

Can board climate-responsible orientation improve corporate carbon performance? The moderating role of board carbon awareness and firm reputation

Overwhelming evidence from prior research suggests the functions of the board of directors have a vital influence on carbon performance. However, very little is known about the moderating effect of board functions. This study attempts to fill this gap by developing and empirically testing a conceptual model that highlights the role of board carbon awareness and firm reputation in the relationship between board climate-responsible orientation (BCO) and carbon performance. Using a fixed effect model to analyze data from 665 US listed firms covering a period of 2010–2019, we find that BCO and carbon performance show a U-shaped non-linear relationship. Increased experience of BCO improves corporate carbon performance. The results also provide evidence of the moderating effect of carbon awareness and firm reputation on the relationship between BCO and carbon performance. Carbon awareness reduces symbolic emission reduction actions in carbon management, while, firm reputation will cause symbolic emission reduction actions. Besides, splitting the sample according to firm size and carbon dependency shows BCO has a better effect on the carbon performance of small or medium-sized and high carbon-dependency firms. The findings have important implications for managers to use firm governance mechanisms to improve carbon performance

Air pollution as a cause of sleeplessness: social media Evidence from a panel of Chinese cities

We provide first evidence of a link from daily air pollution exposure to sleep loss in a panel of Chinese cities. We develop a social media-based, city-level metric for sleeplessness, and bolster causal claims by instrumenting for pollution with plausibly exogenous variations in wind patterns. Estimates of effect sizes are substantial and robust. In our preferred specification a one standard deviation increase in AQI causes an 11.6% increase in sleeplessness, and for PM2:5 is 12.8%. The results sustain qualitatively under OLS estimation but are attenuated. The analysis provides a previously unaccounted for benefit of more stringent air quality regulation. It also offers a candidate mechanism in support of recent research that links daily air quality to diminished workplace productivity, cognitive performance, school absence, traffic accidents, and other detrimental outcomes

A modified lumped parameter model of distribution transformer winding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China under Grant (2016YFB0900600XXX).The modelling of the distribution transformer winding is the starting point and serves as important basis for the transformer characteristics analysis and the lightning pulse response prediction. A distributed parameters model can depict the winding characteristics accurately, but it requires complex calculations. Lumped parameter model requires less calculations, but its applicable frequency range is not wide. This paper studies the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the lightning wave, compares the transformer modelling methods and finally proposes a modified lumped parameter model, based on the above comparison. The proposed model minimizes the errors provoked by the lumped parameter approximation, and the hyperbolic functions of the distributed parameter model. By this modification it becomes possible to accurately describe the winding characteristics and rapidly obtain the node voltage response. The proposed model can provide theoretical and experimental support to lightning protection of the distribution transformer.publishersversionpublishe

The clustering pattern of Chinese house price dynamics

This paper investigates the clustering p

Has China displaced the outward investments of OECD countries?

As China has rapidly emerged as one of the world's largest investors abroad, there has been a hectic debate in the literature on whether its emergence as a major foreign investor may have undermined the importance of western industrialised economies, including those in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This paper aims to investigate whether this is the case. The study uses a panel dataset covering 155 countries, including 33 in the OECD, where China had invested during 2003–09. This is by far the most comprehensive dataset of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). A two-stage least squared (TSLS) regression approach is adopted for our econometric models according to an established augmented gravity model in the literature. The empirical results show clear evidence that China's OFDI displaces that of the OECD countries, but the argument that China's emergence is a ‘new colonialism’ is not supported as OECD countries' OFDI in resource abundant host countries, particularly that in Africa and Latin America, does not appear to have been displaced by China's OFDI

Outer membrane vesicles from bacteria: Role and potential value in the pathogenesis of chronic respiratory diseases

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death in both adults and children, with respiratory infections being the leading cause of death. A growing body of evidence suggests that bacterially released extracellular membrane vesicles play an important role in bacterial pathogenicity by targeting and (de)regulating host cells through the delivery of nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Among the many factors contributing to bacterial pathogenicity are the outer membrane vesicles produced by the bacteria themselves. Bacterial membrane vesicles are being studied in more detail because of their potential role as deleterious mediators in bacterial infections. This review provides an overview of the most current information on the emerging role of bacterial membrane vesicles in the pathophysiology of pneumonia and its complications and their adoption as promising targets for future preventive and therapeutic approaches

A chaotic spread spectrum system for underwater acoustic communication

The work is supported in part by NSFC (Grant no. 61172070), IRT of Shaanxi Province (2013KCT-04), EPSRC (Grant no.Ep/1032606/1).Peer reviewedPostprin