Determinants of world manufacturing exports to China, 1990-2006

This paper studies the determinants of manufacturing exports to China. Data from 79 countries for the 1990-2006 period and estimates of gravity equations are used to analyse the effects of countries' factor endowment, geographical characteristics and degree of economic openness. The results are consistent with the factor abundance model and reveal that economies with a larger human capital endowment export a greater volume of manufactures to China. Having a large economy and being geographically close to China also make a country more likely to export manufactures to it. The results do not indicate that other characteristics of countries, such as openness to trade or an outlet to the sea, play an important role&& nor does the endowment per worker of land or capital. The implications of this study should be of interest to economies seeking to benefit from the remarkable dynamism of the Chinese economy by diversifying their exports into manufactures.