Foreign trade drives economic growth in central China, outperforming foreign direct investment.
The study looked at how foreign investment and trade affect economic growth in central China from 1993 to 2007. They used fancy math to see how these factors influence each other over time. The results showed that in the short term, economic growth and foreign trade impact each other, but foreign investment doesn't affect economic growth much. Foreign trade has a big positive impact on economic growth, while foreign investment doesn't have as much influence due to regional factors. When predicting economic growth, errors are mostly due to foreign trade.