China´s pivot to Latin America? revisiting the institutional impact on Sino-Latin American economic relations
- Autores: Mejie Jiang
- Directores de la Tesis: Pablo Pareja Alcaraz (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( España ) en 2023
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Josep Ibáñez Muñoz (presid.), Julia Costa López (secret.), Andrea Carla Bianculli (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Derecho por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
- español
Desde la presencia de China en América Latina, se ha venido discutiendo sobre qué impulsa las actividades comerciales chinas en la región. Sin embargo, hay poco consenso sobre el impacto institucional en las relaciones económicas chinas con América Latina. Utilizando datos de panel del comercio bilateral entre China y América Latina y la IED china en la región, este estudio empírico aplica el modelo de gravedad ampliado para comprobar si las instituciones y las distancias institucionales, medidas por el Índice de Gobernanza Mundial, el Índice de Libertad Económica y las dimensiones de cultura nacional de Hofstede, fomentan o dificultan las actividades económicas. Los resultados muestran que las instituciones son importantes, pero que influyen en el comercio bilateral y en la IED china de forma diferente. También cuestiono la idea convencional de que los países afines en cuanto a la cultura y sistemas político-económicos tendrán más actividades de negocio. Una mejor comprensión de este tema arrojará luz sobre las consideraciones estratégicas chinas detrás de su influencia económica en el Sur Global y en el mundo.
- English
The thesis titled “China’s pivot to Latin America? Revisiting the institutional impact on Sino-Latin American economic relations” aims to answer several research questions on Sino-Latin American relations as well as the institutional impact on the bilateral economic relations: what are the continuities and changes in China’s foreign policy towards Latin America in the past seven decades? What are the main features of the current economic relations between China and Latin America? Do institutional quality and distances matter for bilateral trade as well as Chinese investment in Latin America? Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, this research helps to understand China’s approach to the Global South and, more generally, to the rest of the world in a changing international order.
From the theoretical perspective, the findings challenge the conventional thoughts that high institutional quality and shorter institutional distances will necessarily drive bilateral trade and foreign investment. In addition, I create an analytical framework integrating political, economic, and cultural factors to measure intangible factors and elucidate how these factors impact commercial and investment relations between China and Latin America.
In terms of methodology, I combine qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative methods include historical and content analysis based on both primary and secondary sources. I also use econometric modeling to process quantitative data. The analytical framework of institutions and institutional distances on three dimensions: politics, economy, and culture are based on the measurement of Worldwide Governance Indicators of the World Bank, the Index of Economic Freedom of the Heritage Foundation, and Hofstede’s National Cultural Dimensions.
Regarding the structure, it is divided into two main blocks and eight chapters including an introduction and conclusion. The introduction gives a glimpse of the main ideas of the monograph including research background, candidate’s personal experience, study significance and aims, research questions and theoretical/methodological approaches, and lastly, a summary of findings and each chapter’s content. The first block lays the theoretical foundations for the research. I have brought together publications and contributions from Chinese, Latin American, European and American scholars for discussion on Sino-Latin American relations from theories of international relations and international political economy. Then, I look into the origins and changes of international business theories to find out what drives and what hinders foreign trade and investment. After that, I have proposed an analytical framework of institutions and institutional distances on three dimensions: political, economic and cultural dimensions, which will be used in the subsequent chapters. In the second block, there are three chapters corresponding to the three research questions respectively. In the qualitative analysis, I review the general trend and pattern of Sino-Latin American relations during the last seven decades, followed by the main features and characteristics of contemporary economic relations. In the quantitative chapters, I apply the proposed framework to test a series of hypotheses. Finally, the conclusion answers the initial questions. Moreover, I have added further reflections on several interesting debates, such as the explanatory power of liberalism, China’s approach to developing countries, the merits and weaknesses of existing indicators, and international order. Besides, I present the study’s limitations and point out directions for future research, which will encourage other scholars to follow the same or similar research lines.
As for the bibliography, I have consulted references in English, Spanish, Chinese and other languages from different sources: journals, books, official documents, websites, etc. They have covered topics such as international relations theories, theories of international political economy, international law and global order, Chinese foreign policy, foreign trade and investment, and Sino-Latin American relations, to name just a few.
- español
