 Has the Belt and Road Initiative improved the quality of economic growth in China's cities?Qunxi Kong, Afei Chen, Chenrong Shen and Zoey Wong International Review of Economics & Finance, 2021, vol. 76, issue C, 870-883 Abstract: Reform and opening up in China has produced high levels of economic growth but there have been problems concerning its quality. We investigate the effects of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the quality of urban economic growth using the difference-in-difference model with microdata of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004-2018. We find this impact is positive and significant and occurs through three mechanisms: technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading and resource allocation optimization. Heterogeneity analysis shows significant differences in impact across city levels, spatial structures and location conditions. The effect of the BRI is most obvious in first- and second-tier cities and non-capital cities and is greater for cities with high sprawl and polycentric clusters. The quality of economic growth is most improved in Silk Belt pioneer area, followed by the open core area, strategic pivot and external-window area. Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative; Quality of economic growth; Cities along the route; Technological innovation; Industrial structure; Resource allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:76:y:2021:i:c:p:870-883 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2021.07.001 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.