Study On The Influence Of Digital Economy On The Technical Complexity Of City Export

Since China joined the WTO,it has actively embedded itself into the world industrial division of labor system,and its economy has rapidly entered the fast lane of development.However,relying on the advantages of population and resources,the export industry structure of "two out,only in" seriously restricts the improvement of the technical complexity of China’s export,which makes it more and more unsuitable in the future world industrial division of labor pattern.At the same time,with the rapid development of China’s digital information technology and the improvement of the commercialization level,the digital economy,relying on digital technology,has continuously penetrated into all aspects of the social economy,becoming an important driving force for a new round of technological and industrial revolution.It is worth noting that digital economy,as an important driving force of business innovation and industrial upgrading,can create new opportunities for China’s export industry technology upgrading,but it will also inhibit the improvement of export technology complexity under the influence of moral hazard and other effects.Therefore,the influence of digital economy on the technological complexity of China’s export depends on the strength comparison between the promoting effect and the inhibiting effect.The 21st CPC Report points out that seizing the initiative of digital technology development will have a far-reaching impact on industrial transformation and innovative development momentum,while optimizing and upgrading trade in goods will be crucial to optimizing China’s future global division of labor.Therefore,whether the digital economy can effectively promote the progress of export technology complexity has become the question of The Times to break the shackles of "low-end lock" in China’s export industry.In this case,this thesis studies the influence of the development of China’s digital economy on the technological complexity of urban export.In terms of the theoretical mechanism of the influence of digital economy on the technological complexity of exports,this thesis finds that digital economy can improve the total factor productivity by reducing trade costs,promoting technology spillover,promoting industrial integration and optimizing human capital,and so on,so as to improve the technological complexity of exports.On the other hand,the development of digital economy,under the influence of moral hazard,Gresham’s Law effect and low-end lock-in,also restricts the progress of total factor productivity to a certain extent,thus creating a restraining effect on the improvement of export technological complexity.Among them,the total factor productivity is the key transmission factor of the effect of digital economy on the technological complexity of export.To test the above conjecture,this thesis carries out an empirical study.In terms of specific methods:Firstly,this thesis constructs the index system of comprehensive development level of digital economy from two dimensions of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization,uses the principal component analysis method to measure the development level of digital economy in Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019,and uses EXPY index model to measure the technological complexity level of Chinese cities’ export during the observation period.Secondly,this thesis conducts overall sample and subsample regression for 264 prefecture-level cities in China,and investigates the specific effect of digital economy on the export technology complexity of cities and the influence of urban feature heterogeneity on the results.Finally,this thesis uses the technology efficiency invariant stochastic frontier method to measure the total factor productivity of Chinese cities during the sample period,and tests the channel role of total factor productivity in the influence of digital economy on the technological complexity of urban export.The final results show that:(1)In terms of benchmark regression results,the development of digital economy can significantly promote the improvement of technical complexity of urban export.On the one hand,the value creation of data elements is constantly amplified under the influence of Metcalfe’s law.The continuous enhancement of marketization ability of digital technology makes the life cycle of export products constantly compressed,and the speed of product technology iteration gradually tends to accelerate.On the other hand,the technological innovation feedback ability of the deep integration of heterogeneous industrial chains is gradually emerging,and the ability to create high-end value chain industries and promote new products is further enhanced.In addition,foreign direct investment,urbanization level and government participation all significantly promote the improvement of technological complexity of urban export,among which the improvement of government participation has the most obvious effect on the improvement of technological complexity of urban export.(2)In terms of heterogeneity test results,the impact of digital economy on the technological complexity of urban export has obvious differences in geographical location and urban characteristics.In terms of geographical location,the promotion effect of digital economy on the technological complexity of export of cities in central and western regions is obviously stronger than that of cities in eastern regions.At the city level,the driving effect of digital economy on technological complexity of export in peripheral cities is significantly stronger than that in central cities.On the one hand,the spatial spillover effect of technological progress makes a part of the driving force of improving production efficiency in the eastern region and central cities transfer to the central and western regions and peripheral cities,thus optimizing the technological content of products in the central and western cities and peripheral cities.On the other hand,compared with cities in eastern regions and central cities,cities in central and western regions and peripheral cities have relatively weak regional advantages such as transportation and technological development level,and have larger space for optimizing production efficiency.Therefore,digital economy has a stronger promoting effect on the technological complexity of cities’ export.(3)In terms of the mechanism of action:Based on the test of the intermediary effect model,this paper finds that promoting the progress of total factor productivity is the key mechanism of the influence of digital economy on the technological complexity of urban export.The technology promotion effect generated by digital economy is stronger than the technology inhibition effect caused by investment imbalance and efficiency loss,which promotes the progress of the overall production technology of the society,and further promotes the improvement of the technical complexity of the products in the export sector.The research significance of this thesis is as follows:First,based on the fact that the dynamic gradient transfer of export industry between cities is an important feature of the evolution of export industry,that is,the complexity of export technology is closely related to the characteristics of urban development,this thesis reveals the dynamic evolution law of the export technology complexity of Chinese cities,and then investigates the real effect of the development of China’s digital economy on the export technology complexity of cities.Second,as the essential reflection of output capacity of various production input factors,total factor productivity has been ignored by relevant mechanisms.This thesis deduces and verifies the key channel role of total factor productivity in the effect of digital economy on the technological complexity of export from both theoretical and empirical aspects,which enriches the research on the mechanism of the effect of digital economy on the technological complexity of export.For export industry sector to carry out appropriate digital transformation,so as to better promote industrial technological progress,in order to maximize the digital economy to enhance the export technical complexity to provide beneficial enlightenment.