| This paper is based on the background of the digital economy.On one hand,the digital economy is becoming more and more important and its contribution to the Chinese and world economy is increasing,and it has become an important way to transform the world economy.On the other hand,the digital economy is still in its developing stage and international digital rules are not perfect now.Coupled with the rising trend of external protectionism and unilateralism,digital trade barriers have become an obstacle to the international digital economy.At the same time,since the "going global" strategy,China’s outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)has taken off speedily,from the initial stage of attracting foreign investment to the current stage of outward investment,but the increasingly complex international environment in recent years has added more risks to the already difficult outward investment.This paper explores the impact of digital trade barriers on China’s OFDI efficiency from the perspective of the digital economy,in the hope of providing effective suggestions for China’s OFDI in the digital economy era.This paper firstly reviews the development of digital trade barriers,including the connotation,measurements,impacts and solution paths of digital trade barriers,and explores its development trend from the perspective of data analysis.At the same time,this paper analyses the development of OFDI in China,not only collating the multidimensional influencing factors of OFDI efficiency and three research methods,but also specifically studying the location distribution,industry distribution and current problems of OFDI in China from the perspective of flow and stock.In addition,this paper elaborates the relationship between export trade and OFDI based on previous theories,and divides digital trade barriers into tariff and non-tariff components to explain their impact paths on the efficiency of OFDI.The essence of the impact path lies in the comparison of the profits of OFDI and export trade;digital tariff barriers will raise the cost of export,while non-tariff barriers will not only raise the cost of export,but also generate OFDI in terms of sales volume and price advantage,so an increase in digital trade barriers will make OFDI more profitable,further promoting firms to choose OFDI to enter the host country.Next,based on the stochastic frontier model,this paper empirically examines the impact of digital trade barriers on the efficiency of OFDI in China using 11 years(2010-2020)of panel data from 16 countries(regions)that are significant for OFDI in China.Finally,the paper makes recommendations at both government and enterprise levels.The findings of this paper suggest that digital trade barriers will promote China’s OFDI efficiency through the substitution effect of exports and investment,i.e.the stricter the digital trade barriers of the host country,the more efficient China’s OFDI to it.Therefore,the government should clarify the strategic direction of OFDI and improve resource utilization,while strengthening technological innovation to vigorously develop digital industries and take an active role in developing global regulations for the digital sphere.At the same time,enterprises should actively respond to digital trade barriers by upgrading their international operations and technology innovation. |
