A Study On The Impact Of Digital Economy On Product Quality Upgrade Of Chinese Manufacturing Exports

Since the 21 st century,China has actively participated in the international division of labor by virtue of its demographic dividend and natural resource advantages,and the scale of foreign trade exports has been expanding and the industrial structure has been continuously optimized and upgraded.As one of the three driving forces of China’s GDP,exports have played an increasingly important role in promoting the steady development of China’s economy.At the same time,as the scale of China’s manufacturing exports continues to expand,the issue of product quality has become a major obstacle to the expansion and transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing exports,compared to developed countries,China’s manufacturing exports overall show "more but not stronger" situation.In this context,vigorously improve the quality of manufacturing exports is an important breakthrough to comprehensively improve the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing foreign trade enterprises.In recent years,the world’s industrial development mode gradually transforms to digitalization,and China,with the technical advantages of big data and 5G communication,embeds digital technology into the manufacturing industry chain comprehensively,and the deep penetration of digital economy becomes the new normal of manufacturing industry.Based on the above understanding,this thesis focuses on exploring the impact effect and mechanism of digital economy on the quality of Chinese manufacturing export products,and tries to provide theoretical basis and path analysis for the digital transformation of China’s manufacturing export enterprises.This thesis explores the mechanism of the impact of digital economy on the quality of China’s manufacturing export products from both theoretical and empirical aspects.The research is mainly carried out in the following aspects:(1)literature combing and constructing the digital economy development index.The basic relationship between the digital economy and the quality of manufacturing export products is explored by combing the relevant literature.The basic concept of digital economy is clarified,and three dimensions of digital infrastructure,digital industrialization and industrial digitization are used to construct the digital economy development index at the provincial level.(2)Theoretical hypothesis.Based on the smile curve theory,the theoretical research on the relationship between digital economy and export product quality is conducted,and the research hypothesis that digital economy affects manufacturing export product quality through R&D innovation promotion effect and trade cost reduction effect is proposed.(3)Quantification of export product quality indicators.The demand information extrapolation method is used to measure the export product quality at the manufacturing product level in 30 provinces of China(excluding Tibet and Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan)from 2013 to 2020,and then the product level data are summed up to the provincial level and the distribution characteristics of manufacturing export product quality in 30 provinces of China(excluding Tibet and Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan)are sorted out.(4)Empirical analysis.A two-way fixed-effects model is used to test the impact of digital economy on the quality of manufacturing export products,and robustness tests are conducted by replacing core explanatory variables method,replacing core explained variables method,lagged variables method,and instrumental variables method.(5)Heterogeneity analysis.In this thesis,in order to deeply explore the relationship between the two,firstly,the heterogeneous influence of digital economy development on manufacturing export product quality is examined from the east,central and west,and secondly,the heterogeneous influence of the two is explored according to the different levels of development of digital economy and manufacturing export product quality.(6)Impact mechanism analysis.The mediating variables R&D innovation and trade cost are introduced for impact mechanism analysis.The above theoretical analysis and empirical results show that(1)the quality of China’s manufacturing export products shows an overall upward trend but with certain fluctuations from2013 to 2020.(2)The development of China’s digital economy can effectively improve the quality of manufacturing export products,and this conclusion passes the robustness tests of replacing the core explanatory variables,replacing the core explanatory variables,lagging the core explanatory variables by one period,and the instrumental variables method.(3)There are obvious regional heterogeneity,heterogeneity of digital economy development level and heterogeneity of manufacturing export product quality development level in the effect of digital economy on manufacturing export product quality.(4)The digital economy improves the quality of manufacturing export products by promoting R&D innovation and reducing trade costs,which in turn improves the quality of manufacturing export products.Based on the analysis of the mechanism of the impact of digital economy on the quality of manufacturing export products and the results of empirical research,we put forward targeted suggestions in five aspects: strengthening the cultivation of digital talents,promoting the improvement of R&D and innovation level,accelerating the improvement of foreign opening,promoting the coordinated development of digital economy among regions,and continuing to improve the level of urbanization,so as to promote the improvement of the quality of China’s manufacturing export products.