The Long Road to School: Chinese Investments and Educational Outcomes Among BRI-Participating Countries Open Access

Abstract

This paper uses a staggered difference-in-differences design to examine the effect of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on educational enrollment outcomes across 205 countries from 2000 to 2023. Employing a $500M cumulative BRI investment threshold as the treatment condition, this study finds that BRI-participating countries experience an increase in female primary enrollment. However, across Sub-Saharan Africa, BRI participation is associated with lower secondary education enrollment. Additionally, specific attention is paid to potential spillover effects on education that investments across sectors, including health, transportation, and energy, may have. This study finds that transport and energy investments are positively associated with secondary enrollment, suggesting that the composition of investments matters as much as their scale. Education labeled investment and the Initiation of the 2016 BRI Education Action Plan both showed no significant positive enrollment effect. This study finds limited evidence that BRI participation has any significant impact on secondary and tertiary enrollment globally.

Table of Contents

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

2 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

3 Data and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1 Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2 Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.3 Empirical Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.1 Main DiD Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.2 Dynamic DiD Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.3 Sector Specific Education Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.4 Education Action Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.5 Callaway-Sant’Anna DiD Robustness Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

5.1 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	Economics
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Education, Evaluation Economics, General
Keyword	China BRI
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Vivian Yue, Emory University
Committee Members	Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Emory University Kelli Lanier , Emory University

Last modified

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	The Long Road to School: Chinese Investments and Educational Outcomes Among BRI-Participating Countries ()	2026-04-22 19:08:47 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions