The Impact of China’s Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones on Sustainable Trade of Host Countries

Yu Zhang, Zeyu Fu, Lei Xu () and Zhenzhen Lu
Additional contact information
Yu Zhang: Economics and Management College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Zeyu Fu: Economics and Management College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Lei Xu: Economics and Management College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Zhenzhen Lu: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-31

Abstract: Under the concept of “government-guided, enterprise-led, and market-oriented” operation, the Chinese Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones (COCZs) have developed a new type of international production pattern, which has become an effective way for developing countries to integrate into the global production network sustainably. Based on the COCZ data collected manually and country-level panel data from 1997 to 2019, this study innovatively analyzes the sustainable trade effect of COCZs with the difference-in-differences method. The research finds that the establishment of COCZs significantly boosts the import and export of the host country in a sustainable manner. Further analysis finds that COCZs can promote the sustainable trade growth of the host country in three aspects: economic, societal, and environmental. This sustainable trade effect is closely related to the institutional improvement and infrastructure construction generated by COCZs. By providing a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the impact of COCZs on the host country’s trade performance, the paper effectively responds to the criticisms on China’s “going out” strategy, which is often based on biased assumptions and a lack of empirical evidence. It also provides policy implications for both China and the host countries to enhance the cooperation and mutual benefits of COCZs.

Keywords: overseas economic and trade cooperation zones; sustainable trade; host country; difference-in-differences; global supply chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16951/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16951/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16951-:d:1302617

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().