China’s outward foreign direct investment: A comparative study between OBOR countries and non-OBOR countries

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) between One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries and non-OBOR countries based on economic environments. Using multiple regression model to analyze host countries’ economic environments and China’s OFDI from 2012 to 2017, I find that China’s OFDI is affected by economic environments of OBOR countries, but has no relationship with economic environment of non-OBOR countries. For OBOR countries, GDP and trade volume between China and host countries stimulate China’s OFDI. However, China’s OFDI is not sensitive to host countries’ debt and signing of bilateral inventory treaty (BIT) in both OBOR and non-OBOR countries. In the end, this paper give some advice about China’s OFDI. This paper is significant to China’s potential OFDI, and filling the gap in current research.