Micro Impacts of a Macro-Level Trading Partnership: Effects of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Pakistan

摘要

Trade and investment lead to economic development of regions and nations. Economists focus on the benefits derived from these activities, but there are also costs, many of which go unnoticed in studies that examine the aggregate effects of projects. This article examines the effects on one village in Pakistan of the construction of two coal-fired power plants that are elements in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is the largest component of China's Belt and Road Initiative to develop Asia. Although the newly produced roads and electric power from CPEC will help solve the macro-level problems of Pakistani development, the local residents who are displaced from their farmland to make construction possible fare badly. Losing their farms has not only meant being forced to take jobs that pay much less than agriculture. It has also fractured the social ties that bind together the local community and provide residents with self-respect. The effects have been particularly harmful to the status of women. Viewed as a microcosm of the costs of trade and investment, the village of Qadirabad is a symbol of how well-meaning projects contribute to the deterioration of small-scale communities and the growth of urban slums around the world.