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Summary This paper makes an empirical and ethnographic contribution to the literature on Chinese migrants in Africa by using five case studies to explore their role in the agri-food sector in Ethiopia and Ghana. We find that the realities of Chinese migrants in this sector matches neither popular media stereotypes of empire building and land grabbing, nor Chinese government narratives of South–South cooperation, technology transfer, and agricultural development. Far from being a “silent army” promoting larger Chinese state objectives, they operate independently and serve no agenda other than their own. Many migrants have little if any contact with the Chinese Embassy or other official Chinese presence in Africa. While none of our informants have received support from the Chinese government, they are nonetheless affected by government regulatory frameworks in African countries and their activities are shaped accordingly. The regulatory policy environment is very different in the two countries, and this has implications for the livelihood strategies of Chinese migrants. While the impacts of their presence on local development are modest overall, these impacts do appear to be positive in the sense that they are creating economic opportunities, both for themselves and for local people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The diffusion of the advanced digital production technologies associated with Industry 4.0 remains limited among firms in developing economies. • Firms' participation in GVCs is positively and significantly associated with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. • The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is associated with a labor productivity premium at the firm level. The adoption of new technology is a key driver of firm performance and economic development. Yet the process of transferring and adopting new technologies is not seamless, particularly when the pace of technological change accelerates, and more advanced capabilities are required for the effective operation of new technology. In this paper we develop a framework for the analysis of the drivers of adoption of advanced digital production technologies associated with Industry 4.0 in developing economies. In particular, we ask whether firms' participation to global value chains (GVCs) can facilitate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing sectors. Using a novel UNIDO database on firms' adoption of different generations of production technology in Ghana, Viet Nam, and Thailand, we find that firms' participation to GVCs is positively associated with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, and that adoption is positively associated with firm-level performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlight: [•] This paper analyzes the impact of internal remittances (from Ghana) and international remittances (from African or other countries) on investment and poverty in Ghana. The study has three main findings. First, when compared to what they would have spent without the receipt of remittances, households receiving remittances spend less at the margin on one key consumption good: food. Second, households receiving remittances spend more at the margin on three important investment goods: education, housing, and health. Third, the receipt of remittances greatly reduces the likelihood of household poverty. These findings support the growing view that remittances can reduce poverty and increase human and physical capital investment in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines how farmers in a developing country search for information. Using data on farmers’ decisions to connect with other farmers in order to ask for information about different agricultural problems, we explore the role played by identity in accessing information. We show that farmers target different subsets of acquaintances when searching for different types of information, supporting the view that identity cannot be the main determinant of such decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]