China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Life Expectancy in Host Countries : Empirical Analysis

Life expectancy is part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is a main indicator of overall quality of life. In this paper we investigate whether Chinese overseas direct investments into Belt and Road countries have brought about improvement in the latter’s life expectancy; a topic not addressed in the literature to date. We find no impact on life expectancy which changes only slowly, whether positive or negative, from such investments in the Belt and Road host countries