Time: 13:00-15:00 (GMT), Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Presenters: Professor Hong Bo and Alina Shoaib, SOAS University of London
Chair: Professor Victor Murinde, SOAS University of London
Online venue: Click here to join the CGF Seminar Room on Microsoft Teams (For any inquiry about how to join the online seminar, please contact Dr Meng Xie: xm1@soas.ac.uk)

Abstract
China’s expansion into the global infrastructure market has been very controversial. Our understanding of how China’s overseas infrastructure investment affects host countries is mainly based on individual cases rather than formal empirical analyses. In this paper, we provide rigorous econometric evidence on the economic impact of China’s overseas infrastructure investment on host countries. Our empirical analysis covers 105 host countries that received China’s infrastructure investment from 2005-2019. An innovative supply-side instrument is applied to reduce the endogeneity problem. We compare the empirics across three regions in which China has invested heavily, namely, Africa, the EU, and BRI. We document that (1) China’s infrastructure investment is mainly driven by resource-seeking in Africa and market-seeing in BRI countries; (2) China’s infrastructure investment improves the economic performance of host countries in general, especially that of Africa and BRI host countries; (3) host government debt hinders economic performance in Africa and BRI countries, and (4) there is no clear-cut evidence regarding either the motivation of China’s infrastructure investment in the EU or its impact on EU host countries. We provide policy implications that can be derived from our empirical results.

Presenters

Professor Hong Bo
Hong Bo is Professor in Financial Economics at the School of Finance & Management, SOAS University of London. Prof. Bo received her degrees in Economics from Lanzhou University of China (BA), Renmin University of China (MSc), London School of Economics and Political Science UK (MSc.), and University of Groningen the Netherlands (PhD). Prof. Bo’s research covers topics in financial economics, including firm investment decisions under uncertainty, capital market imperfections, comparative financial systems, corporate finance, corporate governance, and the Chinese economy. She has published in internationally well-recognized academic journals, including Journal of Corporate Finance, Review of Finance (formerly European Finance Review), Journal of Banking and Finance, Economica, Regional Studies, European Journal of Finance, and International Review of Financial Analysis, etc..

Alina Shoaib
Alina Shoaib is a fourth year PhD candidate in the School of Finance and Management at SOAS University of London. Her core research interest revolves around the Chinese economy and financial system. Her current research investigates both economic and financial impact of global Chinese infrastructure investment and its influence on recipient country’s economic growth as well as on Chinese firms’ profitability and financial constraints. Alina holds a Masters in International Management in China, also from SOAS, University of London.