Does the Belt and Road Initiative promote international innovation cooperation?

International innovation cooperation is crucial to the enhancement of national technological innovation capabilities in the context of globalization. This paper asks whether the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as a major international initiative, promotes innovation cooperation between China and BRI partner countries. Using the top 80 global countries in innovation capability as the research sample, the study applies a difference-in-differences (DID) approach. Empirical results show that the BRI promoted innovation cooperation to a certain extent: it significantly increased the proportion of cooperative patents in China’s total patents, with effects more pronounced for countries with better economic foundations. Mechanism tests indicate that shortening institutional distance, strengthening exchanges of scientific and technological talent, and harnessing cultural differences are important channels promoting innovation cooperation. Although the BRI did not significantly increase the proportion of cooperative patents in partner countries’ total patents, it effectively improved their innovation foundations and capabilities.

Weiwei Xiao, Qihang Xue, Xing Yi