The Impact Of The Digital Economy On The Export Technical Sophistication Of Manufacturing

Compared with manufacturing powerhouses such as the United States and Japan,China’s manufacturing still lacks key core technologies and has a low domestic valueadded ratio for exports,and even carries the risk of being locked in the low-end of the global value chain.In recent years,the demographic dividend in China has gradually disappeared,resource and environmental constraints have become increasingly tighter,other emerging economies in the world are accelerating their industrialization,developed countries are increasing their efforts to attract high-end manufacturing back,and the dual pressures of "low-end outflow" and"high-end inflow" are becoming more prominent.In this environment,it is of great practical significance to promote the transformation of China’s manufacturing from quantity expansion to quality improvement by focusing on improving export technology sophistication,which is essential for building a modern industrial system,implementing high-quality economic development,and building a socialist modernization in a comprehensive manner.Meanwhile,a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation is sweeping the globe.The vigorous development of a new generation of digital technologies represented by the internet,big data,and artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into the entire process of economic and social development,and is becoming a key force in the global restructuring of factor resources,economic structure,and competition patterns.Based on the above background,this paper takes the"Digital China" construction as a guide to explore whether it can promote China’s goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.It starts from the dimension of digital industrialization,which can be quantified precisely in the digital economy,and examines the driving force for improving the technological sophistication of China’s manufacturing exports,that is,whether digital industrialization can effectively improve the technological sophistication of China’s manufacturing exports and what mechanisms it has.To scientifically answer these questions,this paper analyzes them from two levels:theory and experience,with specific arrangements as follows:Firstly,based on channels such as the reduction of transaction costs,technological innovation,and industrial structure upgrading,a theoretical mechanism framework for digital industrialization to drive the improvement of the technological sophistication of manufacturing exports is constructed,and unverified research hypotheses are proposed accordingly.Secondly,taking the manufacturing industry of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 as samples,mainstream measurement methods are used to measure the technological sophistication of manufacturing exports and the level of digital industrialization development,and the measurement results are analyzed from the perspectives of temporal evolution characteristics and spatial evolution characteristics.Thirdly,using the panel fixed effects model to empirically explore the relationship between the development of digital industrialization and the change in the technological sophistication of China’s manufacturing exports.Multiple robustness tests are carried out to verify the analysis conclusion,and a mechanism verification model is further used to verify the existence of the mechanism proposed in the theoretical analysis.Finally,based on the empirical analysis results,the research conclusions are summarized,and policy recommendations are proposed in a targeted manner in combination with the relevant policy system.The main research findings are:(1)From 2011 to 2020,the export technology sophistication of various provinces and manufacturing sub-sectors in China showed an upward trend,and the level of digital industrialization in each province also maintained a stable growth.In terms of regions,the export technology sophistication and digital industrialization level of the eastern region are the highest,but the growth rate needs to be further improved,while the export technology sophistication and digital industrialization level of the western region are the lowest,but the growth rate is the fastest,resulting in a "catch-up effect" on the eastern region.(2)Empirical results show that the development of digital industrialization has significantly promoted the improvement of manufacturing export technology sophistication,and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests,such as non-linear relationship test,instrumental variable method to handle endogeneity problems,substitution of core variables,and deletion of special samples.(3)Further regional heterogeneity tests show that compared with the eastern region,the promotion effect of digital industrialization on the improvement of manufacturing export technology sophistication is more significant in the central and western regions.(4)Mechanism test results show that the development of digital industrialization has a positive impact on the improvement of manufacturing export technology sophistication through three channels:reducing transaction costs,promoting technological innovation,and upgrading industrial structure.