Digital Economy,Industrial Structure Upgrading And Outward Foreign Direct Investment

In recent years,the digital economy has set off a great wave in the global development.The information industry continues to overflow to various fields of economy and society,and promote the continuous integration with various industries of the national economy.Digitization has become an important factor in improving efficiency and boosting transformation in the new era.In the face of the continued spread of covid-19,The global economic and trade layout and international order have been strongly impacted,and the adjustment of the global industrial chain has ushered in severe challenges,which upgrades of China’s industrial structure quickly and also promotes the transition to industrial digitization.As an unique economic form of guiding the future development,digital technology has shaped the global modern production network.digital economy has profoundly changed the motivation and mode of OFDI,and has gradually become an important factor.Based on the perspective of home country,this dissertation explores the relationship between China’s digital economy and its OFDI,and bring the upgrading of industrial structure into the analysis framework,which not only provides practical guidance for enterprises and government,but also enriches China’s OFDI theory.Using the panel data of China’s provincial level from 2007 to 2019,this dissertation empirically tests the relationship between the development of digital economy and the expansion of OFDI in the region,the empirical research suggests that the improvement of the development of provincial digital economy has significantly promoted the expansion of the scale of OFDI.The openness of foreign capital and foreign trade,labor cost,R&D investment,human capital and government governance have a significant positive impact on the level of OFDI.The intermediary effect test indicated that digital economy has been major impetus to the optimize and adjust China’s industrial structure in the new era.Digital economy can indirectly promote foreign direct investment through the positive intermediary effect of improving the rationalization level of industrial structure.In addition,the impact of digital economy on OFDI is heterogeneous,which plays a stronger role in promoting the scale expansion of OFDI in the eastern regions,and the intermediary effect of industrial structure upgrading still plays a role.