Informatization Level And Upgrading Export Structure

At present,human beings are developing in depth towards the information society.Information technology,information industry and information economy play critical roles in the process of social development.Faced with the irresistible trend of informatization,every government has introduced informatization strategies to improve their informatization level in order to actively meet the new round of development opportunities.The development of information industry shows a country's strength and potential.By means of informationization,traditional industries can also be upgrading.In addition,the rise of information level can effectively reduce the trade cost between importers and exporters of international trade,and boost the growth of world trade.In this paper,on the basis of a systematic review of the related literature,we discuss the direct and indirect path of upgrading export structure by informatization level.The direct path refers to that theimprovement of informatization level can reduce information costs,promote trade facilitation,and then effectively save trade costs.The indirect path is reflected in the positive externalities of informatization level through reducing the cost of intermediate input and improving total factor productivity.The savings of trade costs and the spillover effect of positive externalities are conducive to expanding the price advantages of export products,improving the technological content of export products and increasing the types of exports.In order to test the above theoretical mechanism,we use the WDI database and UNCTAD database to construct transnational panel data of economies.Firstly,the informatization level of 157 economies is estimated from 2000 to 2015.Secondly,111 economies with relatively complete data are selected to establish a simultaneous equation for quantitative regression.It is found that,on the whole,informatization level has a significant role in expanding export scale,and the direct impact is far greater than the indirect impact.Informatization level also has a significant positive impact on export structure,whether directly or indirectly,in the whole sample regression,but in the grouping sample regression,there are differentiation.The effect of informatization level on export structure optimization is only indirect in developed economies' grouping samples,but direct in developing economies' grouping samples,while both effects are significant in emerging market economies' grouping samples.According to conclusions,this paper suggest that: continue to improve the informatization level in order to further harvest the development dividend of information technology;strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights;improve the multi-level personnel training system;seize the chance of other developing economies to vigorously build information infrastructure,and actively boost export ICT products and services.