Racing to the bottom? Chinese development projects and trade union involvement in Africa

摘要: Abstract Chinese firms operating in Africa are often accused of violating international labour standards and not adhering with national laws. Considering China’s tendency to maintain control over development projects throughout the entire implementation phase, using contractors for work performed recipient countries, present paper investigates whether China impacts African practices their capacity as a donor. Specifically, we use new data material allowing systematic quantitative analysis finance investigate affect trade union involvement. Matching geo-referenced on subnational allocation 2000–2012 period 41,902 survey respondents across 18 our estimation strategy relies comparing involvement individuals who live near site where project is being implemented at time interview those living will appear future, but had yet be initiated survey. The results consistently indicate that – unlike other major donors discourage local area.