IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cuf/journl/y2024v25i1lolee.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digitalization, AI Intensity, and International Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Chu Ping Lo

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University)

Abstract

The study presents a simple model that incorporates data factors into production, demonstrating that both digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) intensities contribute to facilitating international trade. Empirically, we find for every 1% increase in a country's AI intensity that its exports rise by 1.01% to 1.30%. Furthermore, while trade elasticity of digital intensity is around 0.85 to 2.03, the trade elasticity of AI and digital intensities combined is about 43% of the trade cost elasticity. Finally, our results suggest that AI and digitalization play an equally important role as production technology in explaining the distribution of trade flows across countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Chu Ping Lo, 2024. "Digitalization, AI Intensity, and International Trade," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 25(1), pages 251-273, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2024:v:25:i:1:lolee
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/aef250108LoLee.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anders Akerman & Ingvil Gaarder & Magne Mogstad, 2015. "The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1781-1824.
    2. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    3. Haller, Stefanie A. & Lyons, Seán, 2015. "Broadband adoption and firm productivity: Evidence from Irish manufacturing firms," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 1-13.
    4. Richard Baldwin & James Harrigan, 2011. "Zeros, Quality, and Space: Trade Theory and Trade Evidence," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 60-88, May.
    5. Lirong Liu & Hiranya K. Nath, 2013. "Information and Communications Technology and Trade in Emerging Market Economies," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 67-87, November.
    6. Pol Antràs & Teresa C. Fort & Felix Tintelnot, 2017. "The Margins of Global Sourcing: Theory and Evidence from US Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2514-2564, September.
    7. Bertschek, Irene & Cerquera, Daniel & Klein, Gordon J., 2011. "More bits - more bucks? Measuring the impact of broadband internet on firm performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-032, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Eva Hagsten & Patricia Kotnik, 2017. "ICT as facilitator of internationalisation in small- and medium-sized firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 431-446, February.
    9. Matthew Gibson & Jeffrey Shrader, 2018. "Time Use and Labor Productivity: The Returns to Sleep," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 783-798, December.
    10. Colin J. Hottman & Stephen J. Redding & David E. Weinstein, 2016. "Quantifying the Sources of Firm Heterogeneity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(3), pages 1291-1364.
    11. Alessandro Acquisti & Curtis Taylor & Liad Wagman, 2016. "The Economics of Privacy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 442-492, June.
    12. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 167-201, February.
    13. Erik Brynjolfsson & Xiang Hui & Meng Liu, 2019. "Does Machine Translation Affect International Trade? Evidence from a Large Digital Platform," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5449-5460, December.
    14. Laura Abramovsky & Rachel Griffith, 2006. "Outsourcing and Offshoring of Business Services: How Important is ICT?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 594-601, 04-05.
    15. Krugman, Paul, 1987. "The narrow moving band, the Dutch disease, and the competitive consequences of Mrs. Thatcher : Notes on trade in the presence of dynamic scale economies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1-2), pages 41-55, October.
    16. Dirk Nicolas Wagner, 2020. "Economic patterns in a world with artificial intelligence," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 111-131, January.
    17. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    18. Fabling, Richard & Grimes, Arthur, 2021. "Picking up speed: Does ultrafast broadband increase firm productivity?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Margarita Billon & Fernando Lera-Lopez & Rocío Marco, 2010. "Differences in digitalization levels: a multivariate analysis studying the global digital divide," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(1), pages 39-73, April.
    20. Bart van Ark, 2016. "The Productivity Paradox of the New Digital Economy," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 31, pages 3-18, Fall.
    21. Eaton, Jonathan & Kortum, Samuel, 2001. "Technology, trade, and growth: A unified framework," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 742-755, May.
    22. Patrice Ollivaud & Yvan Guillemette & David Turner, 2016. "Links between weak investment and the slowdown in productivity and potential output growth across the OECD," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1304, OECD Publishing.
    23. DeStefano, Timothy & Kneller, Richard & Timmis, Jonathan, 2018. "Broadband infrastructure, ICT use and firm performance: Evidence for UK firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 110-139.
    24. Eva Hagsten, 2016. "Broadband connected employees and labour productivity: a comparative analysis of 14 European countries based on distributed Microdata access," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 613-629, September.
    25. Martin Hilbert, 2016. "Big Data for Development: A Review of Promises and Challenges," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(1), pages 135-174, January.
    26. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    27. Caroline Freund & Diana Weinhold, 2002. "The Internet and International Trade in Services," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 236-240, May.
    28. Czernich, Nina, 2014. "Does broadband internet reduce the unemployment rate? Evidence for Germany," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 32-45.
    29. George R. G. Clarke & Scott J. Wallsten, 2006. "Has the Internet Increased Trade? Developed and Developing Country Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 465-484, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anwar Adem & Richard Kneller & Cher Li, 2023. "Information constraints and technology efficiency: Field experiments benchmarking firms website performance," Discussion Papers 2023-07, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    2. DeStefano, Timothy & Kneller, Richard & Timmis, Jonathan, 2018. "Broadband infrastructure, ICT use and firm performance: Evidence for UK firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 110-139.
    3. Fabling, Richard & Grimes, Arthur, 2021. "Picking up speed: Does ultrafast broadband increase firm productivity?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Timothy De Stefano & Richard Kneller & Jonathan Timmis, 2014. "The (Fuzzy) Digital Divide: The Effect of Broadband Internet Use on UK Firm Performance," Discussion Papers 14/06, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    5. Nucci, Francesco & Puccioni, Chiara & Ricchi, Ottavio, 2023. "Digital technologies and productivity: A firm-level investigation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Dolores Añon Higón & Juan A. Daniel Bonvin, 2023. "Do digitalization spurs SMEs’ participation in foreign markets?," Working Papers 2307, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    7. Lynda Sanderson & Garrick Wright-McNaughton & Naomitsu Yashiro, 2022. "Does high-speed internet boost exporting?," Working Papers 2022/02, New Zealand Productivity Commission.
    8. Fernandes, Ana M. & Mattoo, Aaditya & Nguyen, Huy & Schiffbauer, Marc, 2019. "The internet and Chinese exports in the pre-ali baba era," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 57-76.
    9. Cambini, Carlo & Grinza, Elena & Sabatino, Lorien, 2023. "Ultra-fast broadband access and productivity: Evidence from Italian firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Eric J. Bartelsman & Martin Falk & Eva Hagsten & Michael Polder, 2019. "Productivity, technological innovations and broadband connectivity: firm-level evidence for ten European countries," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(1), pages 25-48, March.
    11. Haller, Stefanie A. & Lyons, Sean, 2019. "Effects of broadband availability on total factor productivity in service sector firms: Evidence from Ireland," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 11-22.
    12. Fabienne Rasel, 2017. "ICT and global sourcing – evidence for German manufacturing and service firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 634-660, October.
    13. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    14. Abeliansky, Ana L. & Hilbert, Martin, 2017. "Digital technology and international trade: Is it the quantity of subscriptions or the quality of data speed that matters?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 35-48.
    15. Timothy DeStefano & Richard Kneller & Jonathan Timmis, 2023. "The (fuzzy) digital divide: the effect of universal broadband on firm performance," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 139-177.
    16. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    17. Gopalan, Sasidaran & Reddy, Ketan & Sasidharan, Subash, 2022. "Does digitalization spur global value chain participation? Firm-level evidence from emerging markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    18. Eva Hagsten & Patricia Kotnik, 2017. "ICT as facilitator of internationalisation in small- and medium-sized firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 431-446, February.
    19. Anil Rupasingha & John Pender & Ryan Williams, 2024. "Broadband and rural development: Impacts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Broadband Initiatives Program on saving and creating jobs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 698-721, April.
    20. Malgouyres, Clément & Mayer, Thierry & Mazet-Sonilhac, Clément, 2021. "Technology-induced trade shocks? Evidence from broadband expansion in France," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Artificial Intelligence; Digital Intensity; International Trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2024:v:25:i:1:lolee. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.