How Does the Digital Economy Affect the Domestic Value-Added Rate of Chinese Exports?

Abstract

The digital economy continuously injects new momentum into the traditional economy and has become an important driving force for national economic development. Against this backdrop and using input-output data from the WIOD from 2002 to 2014, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the development of the digital economy on the domestic value-added rate of Chinese manufacturing industry exports and the mechanism underlying this relationship. The results show that (1) digital economic input significantly promotes growth in the domestic value-added rate of manufacturing industry exports, (2) digital economic input mainly increases the domestic value-added rate of intermediate-product exports, (3) digital input has a significant positive impact on the capital-intensive and knowledge-intensive manufacturing industries, and (4) technological progress and cost reduction are important mechanisms through which the digital economy promotes the domestic value-added rate of exports.