China/Europe and the Changing Global Order Seminar Series

The Open University and York University present a monthly webinar series featuring graduate students and early career scholars

Join Dr Yameng Zhang from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Dr Weiwei Chen and Dr Filippo Bon from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The Open University give a talk on ‘The Impacts of International Friendship Cities (Sister Cities): Evidence from Chinese Cities’.

Abstract

International Friendship Cities (IFCs), also called as international sister city and town twinning, are a type of cross-border intergovernmental relations that link foreign cities sharing similarities. IFCs are originally built to foster mutual learning and development. However, the empirical research on the economic and social influences of IFC is still rare. This talk introduces how to understand IFCs from the perspectives of international relation, institution and network, and then explains the findings of the impacts of IFCs on outward FDI, innovation, and other intangible outcomes by both quantitative and qualitative studies. Accordingly, future research directions of IFC are discussed by the end of the talk.