Study On The Influence Of Language On Hong Kong Goods Export Trade

As one of the core cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,Hong Kong is a world-renowned free trade port and an international financial center.The study of Hong Kong’s trade issues is of great reference to other export-oriented cities in China,such as Shanghai,Ningbo,Guangzhou and Shenzhen.Hong Kong,as China’s most important entrepot port for a long time,can also refer to Hong Kong’s trade experience in the construction of hainan Free Trade port.The influence of language on trade is a mature research topic.Since Jacob Marschak put forward the "economics of language" in the 1960 s,the academic circle has keenly captured the important impact of language on trade.Scholars try to verify the influence of language on trade by using such aspects as WALS language distance,common mother tongue/common official language dummy variable,TOEFL English proficiency index,language diversity and so on.Domestic studies on the impact of language on trade have been conducted mainly in Chinese mainland for a long time.This paper mainly analyzes the impact of language on the trade between Chinese Mainland and OECD countries and belt and Road countries.From another perspective,the author puts the research subject in Hong Kong to supplement the research in Hong Kong’s trade-related fields.This paper uses the extended gravity model,traditional WALS language distance,common mother language dummy variable and EF English proficiency index to verify the goods export trade of Hong Kong.As the local language environment in Hong Kong is Guangzhou,guangzhou(Cantonese)is selected for comparison and summation of WALS language distance with other languages.The sample selects the goods export data of 70 countries and regions with close trade with Hong Kong from2010 to 2019.The conclusion shows that Hong Kong exports more to regions with higher English proficiency and more to countries with lower language distance.Contrary to most expectations,the common mother tongue had no significant effect on Hong Kong’s overall exports.Therefore,for both The mainland and Hong Kong,it is helpful to popularize English education,promote practical reform of English education,cultivate talents of compound minor languages and internationalize Chinese languages to increase the overall export volume of the region.