IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v85y2025icp1760-1775.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of China’s Digital Aid on Income Inequality: Evidence from 127 Developing Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Rui
  • Yang, Shanshan

Abstract

While the global economy is on a clear path to recovery, the issue of inequality persists, particularly within developing countries. Based on the panel data of 127 developing economies around the world from 2000 to 2021, this study employs the multi-period DID model to investigate the role of China's foreign digital aid in influencing the level of income inequality in developing economies. The study finds that China's foreign digital aid has significantly reduced income inequality among recipient economies. Further analysis shows that there is an intriguing correlation between digital aid modalities and its effectiveness of implementation. When China's foreign digital aid is an OOF-like program, it can significantly improve income inequality in recipient economies, yet when it is an ODA-like program, it can increase income inequality. In addition, the effectiveness of aid is influenced by the income levels of the recipient economies. Digital aid proves to be more effective in nations with high to middle income economies in comparison to nations with low-income economies. Therefore, the acceptance of China's digital aid has an important role to play in reducing the level of income inequality in developing economies that cannot be ignored.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Rui & Yang, Shanshan, 2025. "The Impact of China’s Digital Aid on Income Inequality: Evidence from 127 Developing Economies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1760-1775.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:85:y:2025:i:c:p:1760-1775
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2025.02.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592625000529
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2025.02.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:85:y:2025:i:c:p:1760-1775. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.