Impacts of Cross-Country Infrastructure on Bilateral Trade: Evidence from New Silk Road Railways1

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Ying-Min Kuo Mehtabul Azam

Abstract

New Silk Road Railways have provided cross-continental rail freight services between China and Eurasian countries since 2011. We examine the impact of being connected to Silk Road railways on 20 destination countries’ bilateral trade with China before the 2020 Pandemic. To address the issue of endogenous placement of railways, we utilize the generalized synthetic control method. We find that railway connections do not have significant impacts on either the gross import or gross export of destination countries. The results are robust to alternative methods, across product categories, and different grouping of destination countries based on whether they share a boundary with China.


 

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