Their study, published in the Japanese Journal of Political Science, explores whether and under what conditions foreign aid can help improve the donor country's image in countries that did not receive aid. They identify a world heritage site restoration project, which is visible, localized, has no political strings attached, and deals with global public good, as a most-likely type of foreign aid that can generate this positive effect. They also hypothesize that the positive effect will be more pronounced in non-recipient countries with which the donor country has a more amicable relationship. To empirically investigate our argument, they field a survey experiment in a developed non-aid-recipient country, Australia. They provide information to the Australian public about an aid project to restore the Angkor Monument in Cambodia conducted either by China or South Korea. They find that information on Korea's aid to Cambodia improves the image of Korea and the willingness to cooperate with the Korean government among Australians. No such effect, however, is observed in the case of similar aid by China whose relations with Australia have been strained in multiple domains. The findings have policy implications for donor countries seeking to utilize the soft power element of foreign aid as a public diplomacy tool.
You can read it here: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000299