CEPR research from Franziska Hünnekes, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch shows that while Germany is world champion in exporting capital – ‘Exportweltmeister’ – it plays in the third division when it comes to investment performance.

The foreign aid provided by China comes with few strings attached, allowing leaders of recipient countries to use it for domestic political purposes. But according to a new CEPR study by Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Roland Hodler, Brad Parks, Paul Raschky and Michael Tierney, despite Chinese favouritism towards the birth regions of national leaders, the effectiveness of the aid is not reduced. Contrary to conventional wisdom, local receipt of Chinese aid does not undermine economic development outcomes at either the district or provincial level.