The preliminary effectiveness of bilateral trade in China’s belt and road initiatives: a structural break approach

This study aims to investigate the initial effectiveness of the international trade in the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI), which encompasses 64 countries along the Belt and Road as part of China's political and economic network for the years beginning with 2013. To determine the initial effectiveness in the international trade associated with the BRI, we adopt the traditional augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and the one-time structural breakpoint in the bilateral trade data between China and these 64 countries along the Belt and Road from 2010 to 2017. The results show that, for 46 (72%) countries, the trade flows with unit roots and the shocks of trade flows appear to occur more frequently following the announcements of the initiatives among these countries. As for the remaining countries, the trade flows exhibit stationary time series over the 2010-2017 period. Both the 21st century maritime silk road and the silk road economic belt initiatives have affected the bilateral trade volumes of these countries along with the belt and road initiatives, and bilateral commerce mechanisms are able to serve as a stabilizing force in accelerating the economic integration of countries along the route.