How Does Institutional Opening-up Affect the “Quantity Increase and Quality Improvement” of China's Export Trade: A Case Study of Pilot Free Trade Zones
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How Does Institutional Opening-up Affect the “Quantity Increase and Quality Improvement” of China's Export Trade: A Case Study of Pilot Free Trade Zones
LIU Chenyang, YANG Dingziwei
School of Economics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Abstract Based on the data of 275 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2023, this paper uses a multi-period difference-in-differences and mediation model to investigate the impact of institutional open innovation on the scale and quality of urban export trade. The results show that the policies of the free trade pilot zones can promote the “Quantity Increase and Quality Improvement” of China's export trade. The results of the mechanism test indicate that Pilot Free Trade Zones expand the scale of exports through effects such as technological innovation, industrial upgrading and optimized factor allocation, while improving export quality through measures like technological innovation, optimized business environment and more vibrant markets. The heterogeneity analysis results further reveal that the pilot free trade zone has a positive impact on the export scale of cities with different geographical locations and financial development levels, but the impact is not significant in cities with high dependence on foreign trade. The pilot free trade zone has a positive impact on the export quality of cities with different levels of rationalization of industrial structure, population size and government expenditure, but the impact is not significant in cities with lower levels of public services, economic scale and advanced industrial structure. The research provides empirical evidence that openness promotes high-quality development of export trade, which can offer theoretical support and decision-making references for advancing the construction of a new system for a higher-level open economy.
LIU Chenyang,YANG Dingziwei. How Does Institutional Opening-up Affect the “Quantity Increase and Quality Improvement” of China's Export Trade: A Case Study of Pilot Free Trade Zones. Economic Survey, 2025, 42(6): 073.
2025, Vol. 42 
