Research on the Impact of the Construction of Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones on the Innovation Level of Countries along the “the Belt and Road”

Abstract

From the perspective of the host country, this paper studies the impact of the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones on the innovation level of countries along “the Belt and Road” based on the national level panel data of 42 countries from 2003 to 2019. The research finds that the construction of cooperation zones has significantly improved the innovation level of countries along “the Belt and Road”, and the national cooperation zones passing the assessment of the Ministry of Commerce have a stronger role in improving the innovation level of the host country. This conclusion is still valid after a variety of robustness tests. The conclusions of this study provide empirical evidence that the overseas economic and trade cooperation zone is a win-win “China” model, and has important reference significance for China to improve the function of the opening platform through the cooperation zone and promote the high-quality development of the “the Belt and Road”.