A Study On The Impact Of Digital Trade Barriers On China’s Digital Cross-border M&A

Along with the fast developing of IT technology,it is widely used in all areas,the rapid growth and innovation of digital economy has gradually become the main force point of global economic growth.In 2020,the COVID-19 epidemic broke out on a global scale,which had a great impact on the economic and social development of all countries in the world.However,the digital economy continued to show good development momentum and good development prospects,and became the key driving force for countries around the world to promote stable economic recovery under the impact of the epidemic.Under the background of the rapid development of digital economy,cross-border mergers and acquisitions have become an important way for digital enterprises to expand the international market,and there has been an obvious wave of mergers and acquisitions.Based on the research of Belderbos,this thesis firstly constructs a Stackelberg oligarch model,theoretically analyzes the feasibility of Chinese digital enterprises crossing the digital trade barriers of host country through cross-border M&A,and deduces the boundary of cross-border M&A of digital enterprises.Then it introduces the digital trade barriers of various countries in the world and the current situation of China’s cross-border M&A and digital-type cross-border M&A during 2012-2021,and draws the conclusion that the region of China’s digital M&A is mainly concentrated in developed countries in Europe and America and countries with close economic and trade links around China,and the M&A industry is concentrated.Empirically,this thesis first divides the digital economy into 10 industries according to SIC2007 classification method.Then,the OECD Digital Trade Restriction Index(DSTRI)is used as the proxy variable of digital trade barriers,and the panel data is constructed by using the digital M&A data provided by the Global M&A Analysis Database(Zephyr).According to the practice of Jiang Dianchun and Shen Guobing,the zero expansion negative binomial regression model is constructed for data regression.Based on baseline regression,we find that in the whole sample,digital trade barriers have no significant effect on logarithmic cross-border M&A.In addition,Chinese digital cross-border M&A has obvious technology seeking characteristics,and the size of the host country’s digital market is still one of the important factors influencing digital cross-border M&A.Then,by changing the regression method,raising the "threshold" of the host country’s digital economy entry and "excluding" the US data,the robustness test is conducted,and the results show that the conclusion is robust.By analyzing the heterogeneity of host countries with different levels of economic development and different M&A industries,this thesis finds that in the samples of developed countries,the existence of digital trade barriers has a significant effect on China’s OFDI in the form of cross-border M&A,and China’s digital cross-border M&A has the motivation to cross trade barriers.Finally,by constructing a model of the mediating effect of innovation,this thesis finds that the mediating effect of innovation exists in the influence of digital trade barriers on logarithmic type cross-border M&A.Digital trade barriers will significantly improve national innovation capacity,and national innovation capacity has a positive promoting effect on logarithmic type cross-border M&A.In addition,in digital trade,there is a mechanism of coercion,but it is different from that in traditional trade.This thesis classifies the digital economy industry according to SIC2007 classification,provides different classification methods for the division of digital economy industry,and expects to provide certain help for the division of digital economy industry.At the same time,this thesis supplements and expands the quantitative research on digital economy and foreign direct investment,providing certain reference value for the Chinese government to support and guide enterprises to "go out" and carry out digital transnational mergers and acquisitions.