The Effects of the Belt and Road Initiative on the Evolution of the Global Value Chain Division of Labor: A Perspective on the Production Length

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) builds an open platform for cooperation, expands the global production network, gives more developing countries chances to engage in the global value chain (GVC) system, and guides the direction of the evolution of the global value chain division of labor (GVCDL). In this paper, using Eora's input‒output table data, we adopt the GVC production length to depict the "footprint" of the evolution of the GVCDL and apply a double-difference model to analyze the influence of the BRI on the evolution of the GVCDL and its functioning mechanism. The research shows that the BRI can effectively promote the GVCDL, which can be realized by improving the level of communication facilities, the business environment and the efficiency of logistics. Further research reveals that industry and country differences in the contribution of the BRI to the evolution of the GVCDL.