Institutional Distance’s Influence On China Virtual Agricultural Field Imports

China has been facing pressure on agricultural field and foodstuff due to the pattern of feeding a larger population with less agricultural field.Some scholars are researching the Virtual Agricultural Field Strategy to alleviate agricultural field pressure by importing agricultural products which is easily affected by institutional difference.Besides,China foreign trade is more affected from institution when trade protectionism rises.This paper tries to study Institutional Distance’s influence on China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports and it is of theoretical and practical significance.This paper analyzes the calculation and current situation of the Institutional Distance between China and trading countries and China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports.Then this paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of the Institutional Distance’s influence on China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports under the theoretical frame of comparative advantage theory and transaction cost system.Finally,Empirical analysis is conducted with the data of Virtual Agricultural Field imported from various trading countries and other data based on Gravity Model.Following conclusions are drawn:Firstly,Institutional Distance is negatively correlated with China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports,which means the greater the Institutional Distance between a trading country and China,the less China imports Virtual Agricultural Field from the trading country.Among all the Institutional Distances of different latitudes,the Economic Freedom Institutional Distance has the strongest restrictive effect on China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports,and the Property Rights Institutional Distance also has a restrictive effect on China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports,while the influence of Political Institutional Distance is unclear.The Government Integrity Institutional Distance has a restrictive effect on China’s virtual agricultural field imports,while the Government Expenditure Institutional Distance has a promoting effect on China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports.Secondly,when China implements Virtual Agricultural Field strategy,importing soybeans to use farmland from other countries is more susceptible to the Institutional Distance,for these crops having high industrial value and large trade amount,while wheat and other food crops are having high food value,whose included Virtual Agricultural Field is not easily affected by Institutional Distance.Thirdly,China’s import of Virtual Agricultural Field from trading countries is increasingly affected by Institutional Distance,which means the institutional risk in Virtual Agricultural Field trade is increasing nowadays.Fourthly,China’s Virtual Agricultural Field imports from developed countries is more susceptible to Institutional Distance than the imports from developing countries.When China imports Virtual Agricultural Field from developed countries,the institutional distance of investment freedom has the greatest restriction influence on the Virtual Agricultural Field import,indicating that China agriculture has less capital-intensive characteristics than that in developed countries.When China imports Virtual Agricultural Field from developing countries,the Institutional Distance of government expenditure has the greatest promotion effect,indicating that the gap between China and developing trading countries in government expenditure leads to trading countries’ comparative advantage on agricultural field so China import Virtual Agricultural Field from these countries.This paper believes that China should optimize trade environment,reduce institutional gaps,strengthen cooperation on economic,anti-corruption and rule of law with trading countries,and consider import priority by increasing imports from countries with lower political risks and smaller Institutional Distance to optimizing the import structure and reduce import dependence.Agricultural practitioners and trade practitioners should actively integrate into the world market,seek common ground while reserving differences,avoid the impact of institutional distance on trade,focus on organic integration with the financial sector and make use of the institutional advantages of financial freedom and investment freedom.Although this article discusses the virtual agricultural field strategy,in the long run,guaranteeing the amount of farmland and food production is the ultimate way to solve the pressure on farmland.