中国援助项目对当地经济发展的影响——以坦桑尼亚为个案的考察

Local Economic Effects of Chinese Aid Projects: The Case of Tanzania

对外援助的作用是国际关系和国际发展研究中的经典命题。近些年,不断增加的中国援助对发展中国家(特别是非洲国家)带来的影响已经成为全球关注的重要议题。以非洲国家坦桑尼亚为个案,将中国援助项目的地理信息数据与“非洲晴雨表”社会调查地理信息数据进行匹配,对居住在中国援助项目附近的非洲民众关于国家经济状况和个人生活水平的感知进行考察,可以评估中国援助项目对当地经济发展的影响。研究表明,距离中国援助项目越近的非洲民众,越可能认为国家的经济状况得到改善且自身的生活水平获得提升。而同样的研究设计则显示,距离世界银行援助项目越近的非洲民众,反而越倾向于认为国家的经济状况正在变糟且自身生活水平没有得到显著提升。中国与西方国家或国际组织援助项目的经济效果差异可能是由援助项目本身的属性和地理分布的特点造成的。这些发现不仅有助于改进对援助有效性的理解,也为重新认识中国和西方援助与受援国经济社会发展的关系提供了新启示。

The impact of foreign aid is both an important and classical issue of international relations and international development. The rapid rise of foreign aid from new emerging powers such as China, India, and Brazil in the past decade has received great attention globally. Scholars, policy experts, and media in the world are particularly interested in Chinese foreign aid to Africa and its possible consequences to the recipient countries. Taking Tanzania as a case, using newly released geo-referenced Afrobarometer Survey and AidData, this paper investigates the economic impact of Chinese aid on local Africans. It finds that proximity to active Chinese aid projects is related to both the perception of better economic development and higher living standard improvement. Meanwhile, it does not find an equivalent pattern to the aid projects from World Bank in the same period and in the same country. The difference of the effect of Chinese aid projects and World Bank aid projects on local development can possibly be attributed to different aid sectors and geographic locations. The finding of this research sheds lights on the relationship between Chinese aid and local development in the recipient countries, and helps us to better understand the nature and characters of Chinese aid.