Diplomatic visits and international trade

ver since the first application of the gravity model of trade on studying bilateral trade flows, more cholars have begun to pay attention to the research related to the effects of political factors on nternational trade. Only after numerous factors had been identified, they broadened their scope and urned their focus to the influence of diplomatic visits. However, most of the research is performed ocusing on developed countries, and both positive and negative results are found in specific countries. Their results are therefore difficult to generalise to other countries in the world. In recent years, more tudies on the effects of diplomatic visits on international trade in developing countries and rising owers have appeared. As one of the significant representatives of rising powers, studies on China are till limited. Hence, this research concentrated on China, trying to add more evidence to the existing iterature about China on this topic. In addition, as economic diplomacy has been playing a more and more critical role in international trade, this research would provide helpful insights for future policies. More specifically, the goal of this research is to explore the relationship between diplomatic visits f Chinese leaders and China’s export flows. A quantitative research of panel-data design has been employed with data covering 175 countries and a time span of 15 years. The gravity model of trade has een used for other variables. Results of the panel regression analysis present that diplomatic visits of Chinese leaders are positively correlated to China’s export flows. In addition, more findings have shown hat there is no significant positive relationship between state visits of Chinese Presidents and China’s export flows. Based on the theoretical and empirical analysis, the results of this research provide mplications for future research and policies.