Infrastructure Constructions And China's Export Trade Flow

When it comes to the patterns of trade,One Belt And One Road has drawn widespread attention in China.September and October in 2013,when visiting Central Asia and Southeast Asia,Xi Jinping put up with the idea of Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road.One Belt and One Road,which collects politics,economy and internal affairs and diplomacy,is a significant strategic conception,contributing to promoting the trading tie with neighboring countries,deepening regional cooperation,accelerating the linkage of the economy and promoting the peaceful development of the world.One goal of the strategic is to achieve interconnection by infrastructure construction,thus form a economic belt with mutual development by lowering the transportation and trade cost.Therefore,combining infrastructure construction with One Belt And One Road,we can make a further understanding of the interrelation between them.What is more,it can provide China with policy guidance for liberalization of trade and linkage of the economy when trading with the countries along One Belt And One Road.Among the prior studies which focus on infrastructure construction and international trade,some direct at one specific country,province or area,some analysis the total effect of infrastructure construction to One Belt And One Road,some merely research the transportation infrastructure or regard them as an aggregative indicator.Therefore,most of them can not give a thorough and detailed reflection of the influence to international trade,let alone the important role of Information and Communications Technology(ICT)infrastructure.Based on prior research and the relevant literature,this study first proposes a theoretical framework for the ways infrastructure construction influence international trade.Next,the gravity model is extended with proper Infrastructure indicators,through which we analysis the influences of transportation infrastructure construction and ICT infrastructure construction to China's export trade flow.Then we make a regional regression to analysis the influences of the two kinds of infrastructure construction respectively.To test the theoretical framework,I will take advantage of panel data methods.Due to data inaccessibility and data missing,this paper merely study China's export trade flow with the other 41 countries along One Belt And One Road from year 2005 to 2014.The results of this empirical research can be summarized as follows: firstly,China's GDP has a more significant positive effect on export trade volume than othercountries'.Secondly,the effects of traditional gravity variables,such as distance,and common border,on trade volume are not as significant as they may have in the past.Thirdly,compared to the countries along One Belt And One Road,the infrastructure construction of China have a greater influence on China's export trade flow;ICT infrastructure has a complexity effect on trade volume in today's international trade,which means some have positive effect while others not.Fourthly,infrastructure construction of exporter and importer has different effect on China's export trade flow,so with different areas.For southeast Asia and South Asia countries,infrastructure construction of importer has a more significant effect than China.For Central Asia and the west Asia and North Africa,infrastructure construction of China exert a greater influence than others.For European countries,transportation infrastructure and ICT infrastructure of China is more significant,but ICT infrastructure of European countries also promote China's export trade with European countries.Finally,this paper put up with some relevant suggestions and policies.This paper contributes to both the theoretical literature and up-to-data empirical evidence on the effect of infrastructure construction on export trade volume.It not only study the global effects of infrastructure construction,but also take account of regional trade differentiation of the three areas.Additionally,it demonstrates that ICT infrastructure has a complexity effect on trade volume in today's international trade.However,the present study is limited in scope and depth.Firstly,due to data unavailability,the paper abandon some countries,merely adopting the trade data of 42 countries for the recent ten years.Secondly,the paper does not make a further analysis of specific industry,which is limited in depth.Finally,I am unable to offer definitive and quantitative predictions on when ICT infrastructure construction will increase or decrease export trade volumes.