The Research On The Export Sophistication Of The Yangtze River Economic Belt And The Factors Behind It

As a major trading country in the world,China still has much room for independent innovation.The reason is that China has less of core technology in high-tech industry,and lacks of technological voice and dominance in the process of international division of labor and cooperation.At present,China is in a relatively low position in the global value chain.In this context,if China continues to adhere to the traditional extensive trade mode,which only depends on expanding export volume and low-cost OEM,it is almost impossible to improve its position in global value chain.Therefore,the focus of China’s developing mode should gradually transfer from "quantity" to "quality".That is to say,the transformation from "Made in China" to "Create in China" is urgently required.As an important economic highland and trade center in China,the Yangtze River Economic Belt plays an important role in the overall development pattern of China.Therefore,optimizing the industrial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,promoting industrial transformation and upgrading,and improving the technological content of its export products are important ways to build an inland economic zone with global influence,and also the inevitable choice for China to achieve high-quality development.This study firstly analyzes the general trade situation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and its sub-regions from the aspects of volume and mode.Secondly,the six-digit HS trade data was used to measure the export sophistication of the provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2002 to 2016.Then,based on the cost discovery model,this paper constructs a productivity decision model,and proposes two assumptions.A detailed theoretical mechanism analysis is carried out in this paper.Finally,based on the productivity decision model,the human capital endowment and the market technology spillover degree are selected as the core variables to empirically analyze the the export sophistication of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The results show that:(1)As a whole,the total import and export trade of goods in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has increased steadily,and its proportion in China’s total trade has also gradually increased,but the growth rate of the total import and export trade of goods has declined year by year.General trade is the main mode of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,and the structure of foreign trade is gradually optimized and upgraded.From the point of view of the sub-regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,the total export volume shows a declining trend from east to west,and the level of foreign trade development is uneven.(2)From 2002 to 2016,the export sophistication of the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed an upward trend,with an average annual growth rate of about 1.7%.However,the export sophistication of the eastern and western regions was quite different.(3)According to the theoretical and empirical research results on the factors influencing the export sophistication of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,we can see that the human capital endowment,the active degree of scientific research capital and the market openness have significant positive effects on the export sophistication of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,which is consistent with the theoretical research conclusion.Finally,according to the conclusion of the study,this study provides four policy suggestions for the Yangtze River Economic Belt to realize industrial transformation and upgrading,improve the quality of export products from the perspectives of talents,investment in scientific research funds,level of opening-up and regional linkage.