The Impact Of Digital Economy On The Efficiency Of Trade In Productive Services

As a representative sector of trade in services,the productive services sector is beginning to become an important assessment dimension of a country or region’s degree of modernisation in manufacturing and economic development.The application of the digital economy has had a profound impact on the trade market for productive services.The building of internet platforms has opened up communication channels between consumers and producers,speeding up the flow of information,and the digital economy based on big data has effectively promoted the marketisation and precision of consumption.China is at the forefront of developing the digital economy and building digital infrastructure,and the indepth implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement(RCEP)will help Asia-Pacific countries to promote more efficient trade in productive services through the development of the digital economy.From existing research,due to the relatively new field of digital economy research,although academics have researched and explored the digital economy and productive services,there is an overall lack of research on the impact of the digital economy on productive services trade efficiency in importing countries,and few studies have been conducted on China-ASEAN regional level data.Based on this,this paper uses the Network Readiness Index(NRI)published by the World Economic Forum to measure the level of digital economy in ASEAN countries from the perspective of ASEAN as an importing country,uses the stochastic frontier gravity model and the trade inefficiency model to measure the trade efficiency of ASEAN countries’ imports of Chinese productive services,and systematically studies the impact of different levels of digital economy and its different dimensions on the trade efficiency of productive services.Based on the results of the analysis,relevant policy recommendations are proposed.The paper first defines the concepts of productive services,digital economy and trade efficiency,and sorts out the relevant theoretical foundations of the digital economy affecting the trade efficiency of productive services,including new supply and new demand,Schumpeterian innovation theory,the validity of the long tail theory and the new dynamic market equilibrium,which provide the theoretical foundation to support the research of this paper.This paper argues that the development of the digital economy in importing countries will contribute to the trade efficiency of productive services through five channels: spatial spillover effect,cost-saving effect,economy of scope effect,precision allocation effect and efficiency empowerment effect.This paper then collects the imports of productive services from ASEAN countries and the imports of productive services from ASEAN countries to China in a time-varying,country-specific and structural comparative analysis,in order to deeply explore the development status and potential of productive services from ASEAN countries to China.In the empirical research part,this paper measures the trade efficiency of ASEAN countries’ imports of productive services to China based on the stochastic frontier gravity model and the trade inefficiency model.The three dimensions of the digital economy(environment,readiness and application)are subjected to comparative analysis and robustness tests of the stochastic frontier gravity model and the trade inefficiency model.From the empirical results: digital economy,trade and transport infrastructure development and average tariff level of importing countries all have a significant positive contribution to trade efficiency,the level of economic development,population size and common language have a significant positive impact on the export value of productive services,the readiness dimension and application dimension of digital economy in ASEAN countries are non-efficiency hindering factors for productive services export trade and are efficiency contributors.In terms of trade efficiency values,the trade efficiency of ASEAN countries’ imports of productive services to China have all increased to different degrees.Based on the results of the empirical analysis,this paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.