Chinese Migration Networks in Europe and the Comercial Balance

The aim of this paper is to estimate the Chinese migration networks effect on its commercial balance. We have measured the impact of Chinese emigration to European countries on the exportation and compared it with the effects on importation through a gravity model estimation in which, emigration was included as an explicative variable as well as GDP/Capita, distance and other dummy variables. Our analyses, based on a panel GLS regression of 32 trade European partners of China in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000, have revealed that the effect of emigration on the import is slightly more important than the exportation effect. The main important finding of the study is that a ten percent increase in the emigration from China to European countries decreases the real value of the commercial balance by 0.18 %.