IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i8p3116-d1372395.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Study on the Competitiveness and Influencing Factors of the Digital Service Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Jinke Li

    (School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China)

  • Fang Wang

    (School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China)

Abstract

In today’s digital era, the rapidly escalating digital service industry plays a crucial role in the country’s economic development. However, compared to the countries that are a part of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the competitiveness level of China’s digital service trade still needs to be improved. This paper aims to know the differences in the competitiveness of the digital service trade between China and CPTPP countries and explore the factors affecting competitiveness in both exports and imports to improve China’s competitiveness level and narrow the gap with CPTPP, thereby promoting its accession process. This paper first uses China and CPTPP countries’ 2010–2022 import and export volume of digital service data to calculate each country’s revealed comparative advantage index, trade competitiveness index, market share, and Michaely fluctuation index indicators, further comparing the comprehensive level of competitiveness between countries. Then, based on the diamond theory, multiple regression analyses will be conducted based on the factors influencing digital service trade competitiveness and using the indicator data of influencing factors in each country for 2010–2021. The conclusions show that China’s digital service trade competitiveness ranked relatively high among CPTPP countries. The competitiveness of imports and exports of the digital service trade is influenced positively by several factors, including the degree of trade freedom, government efficiency, the number of fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, and the industry’s openness. The value of exports of trade in goods has a positive effect on export competitiveness, the enrolment rate in tertiary education has a positive effect on import competitiveness, and the ratio of employed in the service sector to the total employed has a dual effect, facilitating export competitiveness and inhibiting import competitiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinke Li & Fang Wang, 2024. "A Study on the Competitiveness and Influencing Factors of the Digital Service Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:8:p:3116-:d:1372395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/8/3116/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/8/3116/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernard Hoekman & Ben Shepherd, 2017. "Services Productivity, Trade Policy and Manufacturing Exports," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 499-516, March.
    2. Gary Hufbauer & Sherry Stephenson, 2007. "Services Trade: Past Liberalization and Future Challenges," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 605-630, September.
    3. Erik Marel & Ben Shepherd, 2013. "Services Trade, Regulation and Regional Integration: Evidence from Sectoral Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1393-1405, November.
    4. Erik van der Marel & Matthias Bauer & Hosuk Lee-Makiyama & Bert Verschelde, 2016. "A methodology to estimate the costs of data regulations," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 146, pages 12-39.
    5. Karmakar Suparna, 2007. "Services Trade Liberalisation and Domestic Regulations: The Developing Country Conundrum," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-47, February.
    6. Markusen, James R, 1989. "Trade in Producer Services and in Other Specialized Intermediate Inputs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 85-95, March.
    7. Pao‐Li Chang & Phuong T. B. Nguyen, 2022. "Global value chains and the CPTPP," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(12), pages 3780-3832, December.
    8. Erik Marel & Martina Francesca Ferracane, 2021. "Do data policy restrictions inhibit trade in services?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 157(4), pages 727-776, November.
    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. Hoekman, Bernard & Shepherd, Ben, 2021. "Services Trade Policies and Economic Integration: New Evidence for Developing Countries," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 115-134, February.
    2. Dazhong Cheng & Zhiguo Xiao, 2021. "Producer Services and Productivity: A Global Value Chain Perspective," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 418-444, June.
    3. World Bank, 2016. "Assessing the Impact of WTO Accession on Belarus," World Bank Publications - Reports 24698, The World Bank Group.
    4. Wenxi Lu, 2018. "Services Liberalisation, Export Similarity and Trade in Services," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2018-04, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    5. Andre Jungmittag & Robert Marschinski, 2023. "Service trade restrictiveness and foreign direct investment—Evidence from greenfield FDI in business services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 1711-1758, June.
    6. Lingduo Jiang & Shuangshuang Liu & Guofeng Zhang, 2022. "Digital trade barriers and export performance: Evidence from China," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(4), pages 1401-1430, April.
    7. Zhuoran Bai & Shuang Meng & Zhuang Miao & Yan Zhang, 2023. "Liberalization for services foreign direct investment and product mix adjustment: Evidence from Chinese exporting firms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 363-388, May.
    8. Shuang Hao & Zhi Chen & Chien-Chih Wang & Che-Yu Hung, 2023. "Impact of Digital Service Trade Barriers and Cross-Border Digital Service Inputs on Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, October.
    9. Peter H. Egger & Joseph Francois & Douglas R. Nelson, 2017. "The Role of Goods-Trade Networks for Services-Trade Volume," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 532-543, March.
    10. Xiaosong Zheng & Anran Sun, 2023. "Digital Services Trade between China and V4 Countries – A Study of Trade Complementarity and Regulatory Restrictiveness," Journal of Economics / Ekonomicky casopis, Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, vol. 71(2), pages 139-154, February.
    11. Erik Marel & Martina Francesca Ferracane, 2021. "Do data policy restrictions inhibit trade in services?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 157(4), pages 727-776, November.
    12. Camille Reverdy, 2023. "Estimating the general equilibrium effects of services trade liberalization," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 493-521, May.
    13. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    14. Mary Amiti & Jozef Konings, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Intermediate Inputs, and Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1611-1638, December.
    15. Anwar, Sajid, 2005. "Variable labour supply, specialisation-based external economies, and capital inflow," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 427-437.
    16. Carolina Lennon, 2008. "Trade in services and trade in goods: differences and complementarities," Working Papers halshs-00586223, HAL.
    17. 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.
    18. Aleksandra Parteka & Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz, 2020. "Wage response to global production links: evidence for workers from 28 European countries (2005–2014)," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(4), pages 769-801, November.
    19. Stefania Lovo & Gonzalo Varela, 2022. "Internationally Linked Firms and Productivity in Pakistan: A Look at the Top End of the Distribution," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(10), pages 2110-2131, October.
    20. Joze Damijan & José de Sousa & Olivier Lamotte, 2010. "Trade Liberalization in Southeastern Europe," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas & Lyn Squire & T. N. Srinivasan (ed.), Global Exchange and Poverty, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:8:p:3116-:d:1372395. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.