Does the Belt and Road Initiative facilitate China’s corporate overseas investment: Based on a sustainable development perspective

Abstract

Corporate overseas investment is a pivotal element of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As an all-round opening-up strategy, the BRI has brought new ideas to international cooperation, and Chinese enterprises should seize this opportunity to promote global sustainable development. Adopting the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2011-2020, this paper investigates the impact of the BRI on corporate overseas investment (COI) and its mechanisms via exploiting the difference-in-differences model (DID). Results show that the BRI has significantly facilitated the COI along the routes. We observe that the findings still hold after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis verifies that tax incentives and credit environment improvement are the main channels by which BRI enhances COI. Heterogeneity results reveal that this initiative is more prominent for small and medium-sized enterprises and enterprises in dominant industries. The extensive analysis suggests that from a sustainable development perspective, the BRI facilitates more overseas investment of enterprises in polluting or high energy-consuming industries; the COI is more affected by BRI in regions with more stringent environmental regulations. This study provides empirical evidence for BRI construction and regional development.

Keywords:

• Belt and Road Initiative
• corporate overseas investment
• sustainable development
• mediating effect
• difference-in-differences model

JEL CODES:

• F21
• G34
• G38
• F64

Authors’ contributions

Formal analysis, S.Y.; methodology and software, X.L.; writing—original draft, Z.M; writing—review and editing, X.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Documents are obtained from https://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk10/202203/t20220329_972898.html

2 Data stem from https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/fggz/lywzjw/jwtz/202203/t20220331_1321378.html?code=&state=123

3 “Country (Region) Guide for Foreign Investment and Cooperation” is a public information service product for Chinese enterprises to download.

4 Source is collected from http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/kgfb/202203/8d9a08243ba341e59ae61d600edc70bb.shtml

5 Source comes from https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/zyxw/201503/t20150328_332173.shtml

6 The 18 Chinese provinces along the BRI route include Xinjiang, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Guangxi, Yunnan, Tibet, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Hainan.

7 Source is from http://www.chinatax.gov.cn/chinatax/n810219/n810744/n1671176/n2884609/c2884646/content.html

8 Source is obtained from http://world.people.com.cn/n/2015/0805/c157278-27416236.html

9 Source is obtained from https://www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/wcm.files/upload/CMSydylgw/201706/201706131116055.pdf

10 The median pollution emission intensity of each industry is used as the classification criteria, and according to 2012 version of CSRC industry classification code, polluting industries are B06, B07, B08, B09, B10, C13, C14, C15, C17, C22, C25, C26, C27, C28, C30, C31, C32, D44, D45, and D46. The high energy-consuming industries are C26, C30, C31, C32, C25, and D44.

Additional information

Funding

This research was jointly supported by grants from the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 20CJY057), the Social Science Foundation of Shaanxi (No. 2022D030), the Graduate Innovation Fund Project of Xi'an University of Finance and Economics (No. 20YCZ04) and the Youth Talent Development Support Plan” of Xi'an University of Finance and Economics (No. 2022).