City diplomacy and high export values: Evidence from US metro areas

Is city diplomacy engagement related to higher metro area exports? With the proliferation of transnational city organizations such as C40, the Mayors Migration Council, and the Healthy Cities Network, and the establishment of offices for international trade and investment inside city halls, more and more cities are becoming involved in city diplomacy. While these activities are generating positive benefits to cities in the form of better climate policies, collaborative responses to immigration, and enhanced capacity to cope with global heath emergencies, it has been unclear how much city diplomacy engagement influences a city’s economy. This paper gathers data from the 100 largest metro areas in the US in 2019 and uses interaction forest analysis, effect importance measures, and descriptive statistics to examine the relationship between city diplomacy activity and the value of a metro area’s foreign exports from 2005 to 2019. We find that engagement in city diplomacy is strongly related to higher metro area export values. All three measures of city diplomacy (having Sister Cities, hosting foreign consulate generals, and joining international city organizations/networks), are related to higher metro area export values, and hosting consulate generals has the strongest relationship. Finally, although metro areas of all sizes have higher exports when they engage in city diplomacy, mid-sized metro areas may benefit the most.