Dear colleagues, The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economic Research Seminar (Department Seminar) on Wednesday, June 5, with Axel Dreher (University Heidelberg) on " The Political Economy of Chinese Aid" Abstract: We investigate the political economy of Chinese foreign aid allocation and effectiveness. To this end, we introduce a new dataset of official financing from China to 138 countries over the 2000-2014 period. We use these data to investigate whether China's foreign aid is prone to capture by political leaders of aid-receiving countries-examining whether more Chinese aid is allocated to the birth regions of political leaders and regions populated by the ethnic groups to which leaders belong. Our results show that when leaders hold power their birth regions receive substantially more funding from China than other subnational regions. We also find-less robust-evidence that African leaders direct more Chinese aid to areas populated by individuals who share their ethnicity. We use the new data to investigate whether and to what extent Chinese aid affects economic growth and spatial inequality in recipient countries, at the national and sub-national level. Our results show that Chinese aid improves development outcomes. Time and place: Wednesday, June 5, 4.30 - 6.00 p.m., Campus WU, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, building D4, entrance A, 2nd floor, Department meeting room 2.008. With best regards, Harald Oberhofer --- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer Institute for International Economics WU Vienna University of Economics and Business Phone: +43/1/31336-4984 Fax: +43/1/31336-4984 Email: harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at<mailto:harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at> Webpage: https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/ Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) Phone: +43/1/7982601-468 Fax: +43/1/7989386 Email: harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at<mailto:harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at> Webpage: http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer