通用语的贸易效应:基于中国与OECD国家贸易数据的实证研究

The Trade Effect of English as a Lingua Franca: An Empirical Study based on Trade Flows between China and OECD Countries

国家间贸易往来受到多种因素的影响。在传统贸易流量研究中,人们往往关注贸易双方的经济规模、地理距离、贸易协定以及是否接壤等因素,但在经济全球化的今天,语言作为交流的工具,其对国际贸易的影响已不容忽视。文章基于扩展的引力模型,利用1992~2015年中国和35个OECD国家间货物和服务贸易进出口面板数据,采用可行的广义最小二乘(FGLS)和两步系统GMM估计方法,详细考察了通用语的贸易效应。研究发现,通用语可以显著地促进中国与OECD国家间的贸易流量;就贸易类型来说,通用语对服务贸易的影响大于对货物贸易的影响,但无论是服务贸易还是货物贸易,通用语对进口的影响大于出口;就国别类型来说,英语作为通用语对中国与非英语国家间贸易的影响强于它对中国与英语国家间贸易的影响。

In an era of economic globalization,the impact of language as a tool of communication on international trade cannot be ignored. Based on the extended gravity model,using a panel data of trade between China and 35 OECD countries from 1992 ～2015,exploiting feasible generalized least squares( FGLS) and the two step system GMM estimation method,this papers studies the trade effect of English as a lingua franca. We find that English as a lingua franca can significantly facilitate the trade flows between China and OECD countries. Meanwhile,this effect is heterogeneous. The impact of English on service trade is greater than that on commodity trade,and the impact varies across English countries and non-English countries.