Chinese development finance and women’s empowerment: micro-level evidence from developing countries

• We provide the first evidence on gender effects of Chinese development finance. • We use a spatio-temporal design linking projects to women’s empowerment. • Chinese development finance significantly enhanced local women’s empowerment. • Gains stem from service access and capability building, not from norm diffusion. • These effects help mitigate climate shocks and strengthen women’s resilience. Amid limited international development finance and slow progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, this study investigates the gender impacts of Chinese development finance. Using geocoded project data and a survey-based women’s empowerment index for 493,525 women across 36 developing countries within a spatio-temporal estimation framework, we identify significant empowerment improvements linked to Chinese projects. These improvements mainly involve stronger rejection of intimate-partner violence and increased social independence, while intra-household decision-making remains stable. Mechanism tests indicate that better access to services and capability-building are the main channels, rather than norm diffusion. This pattern reflects structural barriers like labour-market segmentation and women’s economic reliance within households. Although public goods provision offers widespread benefits, effects are notably weaker in authoritarian regimes and more pronounced where female political representation is higher. Lastly, exposure to Chinese projects alleviates the impact of drought shocks, highlighting their ability to maintain empowerment gains under stress. The findings imply that combining public-goods provision with strategies to broaden women’s access to paid employment is essential for advancing women’s empowerment.