Determinants of world manufacturing exports to China, 1990-2006

This paper studies the determinants of manufacturing exports toChina. Data from 79 countries for the 1990-2006 period and estimatesof gravity equations are used to analyse the effects of countries' factorendowment, geographical characteristics and degree of economicopenness. The results are consistent with the factor abundance modeland reveal that economies with a larger human capital endowment exporta greater volume of manufactures to China. Having a large economyand being geographically close to China also make a country morelikely to export manufactures to it. The results do not indicate that othercharacteristics of countries, such as openness to trade or an outlet to thesea, play an important role; nor does the endowment per worker of land orcapital. The implications of this study should be of interest to economiesseeking to benefit from the remarkable dynamism of the Chinese economyby diversifying their exports into manufactures.