IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fec/journl/v15y2020i3p313-354.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Belt and Road Initiative and China's Export: A Soft Power Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Jiadong Tong

    (School of Economics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300371, China; APEC Study Center, Nankai University, Tianjin 300371, China)

  • Ziliang Yu

    (School of Finance, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China)

  • Jiayun Xu

    (APEC Study Center, Nankai University, Tianjin 300371, China)

  • Meng Tong

    (Department of Economics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B152TT, UK)

Abstract

Using a newly built soft power index, we examine whether and how soft power affects Chinese firm-level export to the Belt and Road (B&R) countries from 2000 to 2016. We find that soft power has significantly positive effects on both export value and export product types for the B&R countries. These effects are more pronounced than those for non-B&R countries and differ not only between the "Belt" and the "Road" countries but also regional groups, firm ownerships, modes of trade, and sectors. Further analysis shows that soft power increases the intensive margin of exports by approximately three times that of the extensive margin. Thus, our findings provide a new perspective for understanding both the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the contemporary economic evolution occurring in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiadong Tong & Ziliang Yu & Jiayun Xu & Meng Tong, 2020. "The Belt and Road Initiative and China's Export: A Soft Power Perspective," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 15(3), pages 313-354, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:fec:journl:v:15:y:2020:i:3:p:313-354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/10.3868/s060-011-020-0014-7
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); soft power; export; international trade; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fec:journl:v:15:y:2020:i:3:p:313-354. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Frank H. Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.