How does the belt and road initiative promote China's import?

Abstract

We estimate the policy effect of belt and road initiative (BRI) on China's import. We use highly detailed, product‐country level data from China Customs Trade Statistics Database which covers 5364 types of products and 201 economies from 2010 to 2017 to investigate the policy effects and the underlying mechanisms. We find that the BRI has significantly boosted China's imports from countries along the route. The BRI have significant expansion effect on imports of existing products as well as positive effects on imports of new product import and product exit, which means BRI may also contribute to the optimization of product structure and growth in value of China's imports. Moreover, BRI have positive effects on both general trade and processing trade. Mechanism analysis shows that policy coordination, cultural affinity, and maritime transportation connectivity have strong explanatory power on the policy effects of BRI. We also find that the BRI has played a "boosting" role for import boost for new RTA partner as well as non‐RTA members along the route. We further examine the impact of BRI on global bilateral trade, and the result shows that BRI has generally promoted bilateral trade among all countries along the route, not limited to origin‐China pairs.

The loss of political connections and the fluctuation of corporate stock prices: Moderating effect based on media attention

“…Table 8 displays the results of the regression. The results show that the three interaction coefficients are significantly positive at the 5% level ( = 0.0015512, p < 0.05), indicating that in areas with a high level of financial development, the loss of corporate political connections has a higher impact on stock price volatility [ 44 ].…”

Introduction to the special issue “China and the global economy”

“…In “ How does the Belt and Road Initiative Promote China's Import ,” Lu et al (2024) estimate the policy effect of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on China's import and explore the underlying mechanism. Employing highly disaggregated Chinese customs data spanning from 2010 to 2017, the authors show that the BRI significantly boosted China's imports from countries along the route, and policy coordination, people‐to‐people bonds, and maritime transportation connectivity induce strong explanatory power regarding the policy effects of the BRI.…”