Bruno Martorano, United Nations University; Francesco Iacoella, United Nations University; Laura Metzger, Harvard Kennedy School, and Marco Sanfilippo, Università di Torino Chinese investment in Africa has helped spark economic growth and improve social outcomes across the continent. Yet Chinese projects often seem to go hand in hand with civil protests. We wanted to find out whether these were isolated incidents or signalled broader discontent among the population. In new research, we show that...
A joint post by Bruno Martorano, Laura Metzger, and Marco Sanfilippo. An ‘earth-shaking rise’ is how The Diplomat magazine describes China’s evolution from a poor country to a global superpower. The international community, however, is torn between admiration for the country’s achievements and criticism for its authoritarian leadership, both at home and abroad. Against this conflicting backdrop our research strikes a hopeful note, at least for China’s role in sub-Saharan Africa. China may be the...
Researchers from China and Europe met in Maastricht on 24 April 2017 to discuss research related to the SINCERE project, or ‘Sino-European Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency’. The workshop was hosted by UNU-MERIT researchers Prof. René Kemp and Dr. Serdar Türkeli and participants included Yong Geng from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Beijia Huang from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, China; Raimund Bleischwit...
I identify strongly as a migration researcher. So I sometimes feel inadequate next to all my colleagues who can brandish intriguing migration histories from their own lives. My story seems parochial by comparison: I was born and raised in Oslo, Norway, and so were both my parents. I still call Oslo home, and I even have my entire university-level education from the University of Oslo. My great-grandfather admittedly migrated from Sweden to Norway, but that’s about it....
Both the EU and China have policies to promote recycling, energy saving, and the green economy. Yet relevant knowledge and data are in short supply, not only on the economic implications but also on how policy can influence drivers like technological innovation. A new three-year project entitled ‘SINCERE’ will gather European and Chinese researchers to fill these gaps. Prof. René Kemp and Eva Bartekova joined the first Sino-European workshop on resource efficiency (RE) and circular economy (CE) ...
China’s star is rising, particularly in science, technology and innovation (STI). Just a few years ago, the People’s Republic was mainly a manufacturing hub; now it is a global leader in research and development. A new report, commissioned by the EC and co-authored by Dr. René Wintjes, studies the latest performance of China in this fast-moving field. ‘Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) – Performance of China‘ tracks the evolution of China’s STI performance. This substant...
Some Western policymakers see China as a threat to their work in Africa. But when taking a dynamic perspective, as in this working paper, Chinese and Western activities can be seen as complementary. In this way, an entirely different picture emerges. This paper discusses the entry of China into the game of foreign finance in Africa. It analyses the scope, destination and sectoral distribution of Chinese financial flows and trade in comparison with Western patterns and trends of aid, foreign dire...
Our press review features the latest publications by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance, plus mentions in the media. Output for April includes five working papers, one journal article, one country report, and one report based on eight urban case studies. Our research spans the globe, covering migrant integration from the Americas to Asia, school programmes in rural Senegal, and the quality of Chinese scientific research, among many others. Please note that the images above are clickable and ...
In October 2013, Jun Hou successfully defended his PhD thesis on ‘Complementarity in Innovation and Development: A Cross-country Comparison’. Having analysed several thousand firms in more than 30 developing countries, he gives a range of recommendations. In particular, these are based on commonly found obstacles including competition, finance, skilled labour and tax regimes. In answering the questions for our blog, Hou explains the context of his research and how he made use of massive datasets...