Can Culture Lead to Export?Empirical Data on the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

The B&R Initiative is a modernized and specific manifestation of China’s“going global”development strategy. It undertakes the historic mission of promoting communication and exchange between cultures and nations, but also has a positive role in the development of international economy and trade relations. As a messenger of the essence of Chinese culture, Confucius Institutes have a positive impact on the development of Asian and world civilizations. Using Difference-in-Difference estimation methods to study the statistical data from the countries along the B&R routes, this paper examines the relationship between cultural and commodity outputs and comes to the following conclusions: Cultural output is an important factor in increasing commodity exports; Confucius Institutes help increase China’s exports to the countries along the B&R routes; and the growth in cultural exports shows regional differences, hysteresis, and fluctuations. As China’s cultural outputs are still at an immature stage, their promotional effects on exports are unstable. In the future, China should further standardize its management and operational systems and accelerate the Confucius Institutes’content-based development to enhance the effects of cultural outputs in increasing exports, boosting China’s soft powerThe B&R Initiative is a modernized and specific manifestation of China’s“going global”development strategy. It undertakes the historic mission of promoting communication and exchange between cultures and nations, but also has a positive role in the development of international economy and trade relations. As a messenger of the essence of Chinese culture, Confucius Institutes have a positive impact on the development of Asian and world civilizations. Using Difference-in-Difference estimation methods to study the statistical data from the countries along the B&R routes, this paper examines the relationship between cultural and commodity outputs and comes to the following conclusions: Cultural output is an important factor in increasing commodity exports; Confucius Institutes help increase China’s exports to the countries along the B&R routes; and the growth in cultural exports shows regional differences, hysteresis, and fluctuations. As China’s cultural outputs are still at an immature stage, their promotional effects on exports are unstable. In the future, China should further standardize its management and operational systems and accelerate the Confucius Institutes’content-based development to enhance the effects of cultural outputs in increasing exports, boosting China’s soft powe