The Impact Of China’s Investment In Countries Along "The Belt And Road" On Female Employment

With the development of the economy and the improvement of comprehensive strength,China has continuously increased its foreign direct investment.After the "the Belt and Road" initiative was put forward in 2013,more and more Chinese enterprises have invested in the countries along the "the Belt and Road",leading to an increase in China’s investment stock and flow in these countries.China’s investment has brought capital and technology to the countries along the "the Belt and Road",as well as more employment opportunities for local people.However,some members of the international community view China’s investment in these countries with suspicion,believing that the "Belt and Road" policy is a measure proposed by China to build its hegemony.At the same time,countries along the "the Belt and Road" also worry that China is investing in local areas to release excess capacity,which could have a negative impact on its own economy.In this context,this paper aims to investigate how China’s investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road" affects female employment in the host country,with the goal of demonstrating that such investment can effectively increase the proportion of female employment and promote the employment of women.This research can also provide suggestions for China’s foreign investment and female employment.First of all,this paper reviews the literature on the relationship between foreign investment and employment,concluding that foreign investment has both a creative effect and a crowding-out effect on the number and quality of employment in the host country.Moreover,according to the theory of preference discrimination,technology transfer theory,and competition theory,gender discrimination will hinder women’s employment.Based on these findings,this paper proposes research questions and hypotheses,laying a theoretical foundation for the empirical analysis.Secondly,this paper uses panel data from 55 countries along the "Belt and Road" from 2003 to 2020 for empirical analysis,using the fixed effect model for the main effect regression,and testing the policy effects brought about by the "Belt and Road" policy.The results show that China’s investment in countries along the "Belt and Road" will significantly promote the growth of female employment in the host country,providing more job opportunities for women.At the same time,the "Belt and Road" policy has a significant promoting effect on female employment in the service industry in the host country.Then,based on the main regression,this paper adds the gender inequality index and the interaction term between China’s investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road" and the gender inequality index to test the moderating effect of gender inequality index.The results show that the gender inequality index weakens the growth of female employment brought by China’s investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road".In addition,considering the differences between countries along the "the Belt and Road" in terms of geographical sectors,religious beliefs and female employment industries,this paper conducted sub-sample regression respectively.The results show that China’s investment in West Asia,North Africa,Southeast Asia along the "the Belt and Road" has significantly promoted the employment of local women.China’s investment in non-Islamic countries along the "the Belt and Road" will promote the employment of women in the host country.China’s investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road" will significantly promote the employment of women in the local service industry,It has a significant inhibitory effect on the employment of local agricultural women.Finally,based on the empirical results,this paper puts forward relevant suggestions on China’s investment and women’s employment in countries along the "the Belt and Road".