With the growing presence of China in Africa over the last two decades, this paper investigates the impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic performance in Africa, which we compare to that of the traditional economic partners of African countries, including the U.S., France,...

Using data on Chinese large-scale overseas investment and project contracts by sector, we analyze whether Chinese outward activity (COA) before the crisis worsened or alleviated the contractionary phases in developing countries. We find that, on average, COA did not increase vulnerability to the...