How Does International Education Exchange Affect China’s Exports? Evidence 54 Countries along the “Belt and Road” in 2007–2018

AbstractInternational educational exchanges have brought favorable conditions for bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Taking 54 countries along the “Belt and Road” as a sample, the article links the “Belt and Road” education exchange with China’s export and analyzes the internal logic mechanism of education exchange affecting China’s export. The study found that studying in China and opening Confucius Institutes significantly promoted China’s export to countries along the line. Among them, Confucius Institutes promote China’s export less than overseas education, and the trade creation effect of overseas education in China is significantly different in different types, regions, and economic development levels. Further research shows that education exchanges can promote China’s export by promoting human capital accumulation in trade partners and establishing internationally friendly relations. Because of this, the international community should actively carry out educational exchanges, enrich exchange forms, improve the level and quality of educational exchanges, and provide international talent support for trade cooperation while promoting the construction of friendly economic and trade relations.Keywords: The belt and roadeducation exchangeconfucius instituteexport AcknowledgmentsWe thank this paper’s anonymous and non-anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the 2022 key project of the Hubei Provincial Education Science Plan: Research on the Impact of Higher Education Development on Industrial Structure Optimization in Hubei Province [grant number 2022GA091].This work was also supported by the 2022 Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Guidance Project of Hubei Provincial Department of Education: Evaluation of International Competitiveness of Higher Education and Research on Countermeasures and Suggestions for the Development of Higher Education in Hubei [grant number 22G160].