Analysis of the Per Capita Carbon Emission Effect of China's OFDI to Countries Along the "Belt and Road"

Abstract

Under the "Belt and Road" initiative, China adheres to the principle of co-business, construction and sharing, and the exchange and cooperation with countries along the route as well as the economic and trade relations are getting closer and closer, and the OFDI between China and countries along the " Belt and Road" is growing steadily. This paper uses a combination of theoretical research and empirical analysis to study the per capita carbon emission In the theoretical analysis, a theoretical model of carbon emissions and China's OFDI is constructed. In the empirical analysis, firstly, the stock of Chinese OFDI is taken as the core explanatory variable. Then, based on the availability of data, the cross-country data of China's OFDI to 76 countries along the "Belt and Road" from 2009 to 2019 are selected. The relationship between China 's OFDI and carbon emissions was also introduced as control variables. The relationship between China 's OFDI and carbon emissions is analysed empirically through an extended individual time double fixed effects model. The findings of this paper are as follows: (1) the regression coefficient of Chinese direct investment (1) the regression coefficient of Chinese direct investment in the coastal countries is significantly negative, indicating that Chinese OFDI suppresses carbon emissions per capita in the coastal countries; (2) GDP per capita significantly contributes to (2) GDP per capita significantly contributes to the increase of carbon emissions in the coastal countries; (3) the impact of labour force level on carbon (3) the impact of labour force level on carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the coastal countries is significantly negative, i.e. the increase of labour force level can effectively reduce carbon emissions in the coastal countries; (4) The impact of industrial structure on per capita CO2 emissions in the countries along the route is significantly positive. Finally, the policy implications are as follows.