A two-step modelling strategy is applied to a panel of 5,861 foreign-invested and 7,697 indigenous Chinese firms for the period 1998–2001 to investigate whether export spillovers may represent a mechanism underpinning Dunning’s Trade Development Path hypothesis.
Such spillovers are found, and the results emphasize the importance of a wide spectrum of spillover channels involving labour mobility, spatial agglomeration, technological imitation and the diffusion of exporting experience.
Multinational enterprises in China positively affect local Chinese firms’ exports through various spillover channels, and inward FDI brings significant, indirect spillovers.