The Trade Network Structure of the “One Belt and One Road” and Its Environmental Effects

Using bilateral trade data along the “One Belt and One Road” (OBOR) from 2005–2016, this paper analyzes the structure and characteristics of the OBOR trade network. We find that the centrality, clustering coefficient, eigenvector centrality and average node strength are generally increasing, and China holds the core position in the network. Furthermore, we use three-stage least squares (3SLS) for analysis of the relationship between CO2 emissions and trade network characteristics and find that the status of country nodes in the trade network has a significant impact on CO2 emissions, with differences between high- and low-income countries. Our results provide additional insights regarding the impacts of the characteristics of the OBOR trade network on CO2 emissions.