Public Opinion and Chinese Exports: Evidence from Twitter Sentiment Analysis

Yuping Deng, Haicheng Wang and Yanrui Wu
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Yuping Deng: School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, Changsha, P.R. China
Haicheng Wang: Business School, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P.R. China
Yanrui Wu: Department of Economics, Business School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, http://www.web.uwa.edu.au/person/yanrui.wu

No 24-03, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper employs web-crawling and sentiment analysis techniques to quantify public opinion and then investigates its effects on Chinese exports to trading partners during 2007-2019. The empirical results show that, after the control of possible reverse causality, negative China-related public opinion is associated with decreased exports. This relationship could be nurtured through three channels namely consumer preference, economic policy uncertainty and political conflicts. Further analysis reveals that the observed relationship is especially prevalent in developed markets and non-participatory countries of the Belt and Road Initiative as well as for industrial and capital-intensive products. In addition, it is found that political relation is positively associated with exports and plays a mitigating role in the negative relationship between public opinion and exports. Our findings have important policy implications. Policy makers are encouraged to think outside the box and exploit soft power of country image to promote exports.

Keywords: China-related public opinion; export; sentiment analysis; political relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F19 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-int and nep-pol
Note: MD5 = 7ca79f5ec9ae160a378df6174144ab7c
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