| The "Belt and Road" initiative offers new possibilities to promote China’s trade and investment development,to regulate and thus get rid of China’s overcapacity and to play the role of a driving engine in the optimization and improvement of China’s industrial structure.This construction not only further accelerates the pace of China’s opening to the outside world,but also meets the needs of China’s deepening domestic reforms.Since the introduction of the "Belt and Road" initiative,the focus of China’s foreign investment has gradually moved to the host countries along the "Belt and Road" route,and the form of internationalization of enterprises has gradually shifted from simple trade to a combination of trade and investment going hand in hand,with resources being allocated according to the new The allocation of resources is based on new comparative advantages.Therefore,it is of great significance to apply the trade facilitation that has been studied in depth by scholars to explore its impact on Chinese enterprises’ OFDI.However,the vast majority of countries along the Belt and Road are developing countries that share the same characteristics of poor infrastructure,customs corruption,inefficient customs clearance,and poor communication technology.However,from the opposite perspective,this is not only a shortcoming of the countries along the belt and road,but also a limitless potential.Therefore,it is important to investigate whether trade facilitation in countries along the Belt and Road has an impact on China’s outward foreign direct investment,to improve China’s outward investment in multiple fields,to promote mutually beneficial and win-win regional economic integration between China and countries along the Belt and Road,and to promote high-quality joint development of China.The research value and practical significance of this paper are crucial for China to promote the high-quality construction of "one belt and one road" in a deep and practical way.Based on the above background,this paper selects 44 countries along the "Belt and Road" as the research object,and selects four primary indicators,namely,infrastructure efficiency,customs and border management,macro-regulatory environment,and e-commerce,and quantifies the comprehensive trade facilitation score through principal component analysis,and incorporates them into the expanded gravity model as the core explanatory variables.The gravity model is used to explore the impact of trade facilitation level on China’s direct investment stock in 44 countries along the route from 2010-2019,and the empirical model is tested for robustness and heterogeneity.Finally,based on the empirical results,relevant policy recommendations are made on how host countries can enhance trade facilitation and thus attract China’s investment,as well as how to make investments.The empirical study finds that:(1)the sensitivity of China’s direct investment stock in the host country to the fluctuation of its trade facilitation level is high,and every 1% increase in the trade facilitation level of the countries along the Belt and Road will increase China’s direct investment stock in that country by 1.426% and is significant at the 5% level.(2)Among the control variables selected in this paper,the GDP of the host country positively promotes China’s outward OFDI,the labor force level also promotes China’s investment to a certain extent but not significantly,while the geographical distance and the level of natural resources of the host country will inhibit China’s outward OFDI. |
