The Impact of FDI on Economic Openness of Provinces along 'the Belt and Road'

The implementation of "the Belt and Road" initiative has further enhanced China’s economic openness and attracted more foreign direct investment (FDI). However, China is characterized by unbalanced economic development and distribution of resources in different regions. Therefore, analyzing the impact of FDI on economic openness of 18 provinces along "the Belt and Road" and developing the economies of these provinces more specifically have become an important issue. This paper uses factor analysis and DEA-Malmquist model to construct the economic openness of 18 provinces. FDI proxied by 5 measurements are selected to evaluate the impact of foreign direct investment on each province’s economic openness by using spatial econometric model. Empirical results find that FDI has a positive impact on the economic openness of the provinces along "the Belt and Road", and the surrounding provinces also have a significant role in promoting the economic openness of a province. But FDI has different impact on different regions with East Region exhibiting the most significant effect. FDI enhances economic openness mainly through registered capital of foreign-invested enterprises and total import and export of foreign-invested enterprises.