This article identifies the main determinants of Chinese outward FDI (OFDI) activities with a focus on One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries during the period 2003–2015. We established a panel dataset including 93 countries (49 OBOR countries within and 44 countries outside the OBOR). The results show that Chinese OFDI in OBOR countries are highly sensitive to exchange rate (ER) level, market potential, openness, and infrastructure facilities of host countries. The determinants of Chinese OFDI in OBOR countries differ from those outside.

This paper established a combined dataset from 2004 to 2015 for 129 host countries and matched them with 1193 Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) events by Chinese listed firms. Four variables were designed to proxy the agglomeration effects of Chinese OFDI at both an industry and country level. Probit and FGLS estimation methods were used to analyze whether the Chinese listed firm location choices were affected by the agglomeration level. It was found that the agglomeration effect of Chinese OFDI on host country selection was obvious, as Chinese firms were often found to follow other Chinese firms and invest in host countries where Chinese investment was concentrated; however, it was also found that Chinese firms did not choose countries where there was a high concentration of non-Chinese FDI. The agglomeration effect on Chinese OFDI industry selection was also significant. Firms were found to invest in industries that already had large Chines OFDI agglomeration or high host-country industrial agglomeration. Further investigations found that the “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI) was effective in guiding location decisions. Firms were found to invest more along the “Belt and Road” route after the BRI was launched; however, large State-owned listed firms with higher leverage but lower productivity and profitability were found to more often invest along the BRI routes.

This paper considers the effect of exchange rate (ER) level on China’s domestic prices during the period of 2003–2012. We examine China’s consumer price index (CPI), import price index (IPI) and producer price index (PPI) by using time series vector error correction analysis. The main finding of the paper is that ER pass-through has had a limited but growing effect on domestic prices and will continue to do so. ER regime change that was announced by Chinese government in 2005 led to an increased sensitivity of ER pass-through to domestic prices.

: Employing Landsat data, quantitative indicators relating to urban spatial structure in China—including an urban compactness ratio and an urban elongation ratio—from 2007 to 2016 were selected and quantified. The panel data model indicated that urban compactness was negatively correlated with the urban GDP. Urban elongation was positively correlated with the urban GDP. But the urban elongation and the consumption of land resources cannot sustain urban economic growth in the long run. Therefore, to give full play to the economic benefits of spatial agglomeration and to curb the extensive elongation of urban spatial structure, there is an urgent need to reform the current urbanization mode and employ a market mechanism, changing the single government-regulated mode into a multi-subject cooperative mode.