| The manufacturing industry has always been the foundation for China to become a powerful country.Since the opening-up and reform policy started,the market share and international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing industry has achieved great improvement.At this stage,although China has possessed the most complete industrial system in the world,owing to participating in the international specialization with cheap labor and natural resources over a long period,the problems of "low-end locking" and "poverty growth" have become increasingly prominent.Therefore,it is necessary to reduce the technology dependence on developed countries and constantly improve the technical complexity of manufacturing exports to achieve GVC upgrading.Based on this,whether the development of China’s digital economy can promote the upgrading of China’s manufacturing GVC has become the focus of the paper.This paper first clarifies the impact path of digital economy development on the upgrading of China’s manufacturing global value chain through literature review and theoretical research,then constructs digital economy development indicators from five core dimensions based on current situation analysis,and uses export technology complexity index to comprehensively measure the upgrading results of China’s manufacturing global value chain.In the process of empirical test,this paper takes two benchmark regression methods: fixed effect model and comprehensive FGLS method.Then conducts regional heterogeneity test and intermediary effect test.The results show that:(1)The digital economy can promote the upgrading of China’s manufacturing GVC;(2)The development of digital economy promotes the upgrading of manufacturing industry in the eastern region most obviously,followed by the central and western regions;(3)The mediating test shows that the digital economy can promote the upgrading of China’s manufacturing GVC by reducing transaction costs and improving the ability of technological innovation.For good measure,this paper also takes Haier Smart Home as a case study sample to qualitatively discuss how manufacturing enterprises can achieve global value chain upgrading in the context of digital economy development,thus enriching the empirical results.Finally,this paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions based on the comprehensive research conclusions,including accelerating the digital transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry,promoting the coordinated development of digital economy regions,and strengthening the intermediary role of transaction costs and technological innovation. |
