The Impact of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Trade Intensity with Belt and Road Countries

This study uses country-level panel data covering 64 countries in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for the period 2003–2015 and employs a dynamic panel system generalized method of moments (GMM) model with instrumental variable regression techniques to investigate empirically the impact of China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on trade intensity with BRI countries. The study finds that China’s OFDI on average has a positive impact on import intensity and a negative impact on export intensity with BRI countries. However, the impact of China’s OFDI on its trade intensity with BRI countries varies by country groups of resource-rich, high-income, and low-income countries in different periods. The regression results for different periods show that since the BRI was launched in 2013, China’s OFDI has strengthened bidirectional trade relations between China and BRI countries.