Zhou Lingling | The Impact of Digital Economy Development in RCEP Countries on the Reconfiguration o

Recently, the 2021 "International Trade Disputes and Globalization Restructuring Academic Symposium" was successfully held online.Zhou Lingling, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua UniversityAttendTrade Agreement Thematic Sub-Forum 5And shared with his collaborators (see below) a piece titled "The Impact of RCEP Countries' Digital Economy Development on Global Value Chain RestructuringThe article.
 

Article author

Zhou Lingling is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University. She graduated from the University of International Business and Economics in 2020 with a Ph.D. in Economics. Her main research areas are international trade, regional economics, input-output models, and computable general equilibrium models. Her research findings have been published in renowned journals such as *Finance & Trade Economics* and *International Trade Issues*, including 13 articles in CSSCI journals and their extended editions, and 1 article in a CSCD journal. Her articles have been reprinted in full multiple times by *Renmin University of China Press*. She has led a project funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and participated in several other research projects, including key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, major projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China, and ministerial projects.
 

 Zhou Lingling

Zhou Lingling and her collaborators' article mentionsThe booming development of the digital economy has had a profound impact on many traditional industries and established business models. The rise of digitalization has broken the traditional trade model and fundamentally changed the international trade pattern. To this end, this paper, based on the OECD's definition of the digital economy, comprehensively measures the development level of the digital economy in RCEP countries through principal component analysis, and studies the nonlinear impact of the development level of the digital economy in RCEP countries on the restructuring of the global value chain based on the panel smooth transition model (PSTR). The main research findings are as follows: (1) Based on the principal component results, the "technology development and business environment" have the greatest impact on a country's digital economy development level. Moreover, the polarization of the development level of the digital economy among RCEP countries is quite obvious. China is at the middle level and still has a large gap with countries such as Singapore. (2) Based on the PSTR results, the impact of the development level of the digital economy on the production length and embedding position of the global value chain of each country is heterogeneous. When the development level of the digital economy is low, attracting FDI investment helps to enhance a country's competitiveness in global value chain activities. When the development level of the digital economy crosses the threshold, expanding the degree of openness to the outside world can shorten the forward production length of a country's global value chain and help it climb to the high end of the value chain. Therefore, my country should cultivate its locational advantages for digital economic development and promote its transformation towards the high end of the global value chain by ensuring a favorable business environment for digital economic development; fostering technological advantages and strengthening the integration of industry, academia and research; strengthening the cultivation of digital talents and promoting the transformation of the workforce towards highly skilled workers.

(Compiled from paper abstracts provided by the guest) 

Wang Xia 

Wang Xia, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Normal UniversityThe paper's topic of the relationship between the digital economy and global value chains is considered relevant to current realities. It incorporates labor factors, utilizes reliable analytical tools, and presents a detailed and clear paper. Five suggestions are offered based on the paper's structure: First, it is recommended to include discussions on the impact of the digital economy on the restructuring of global value chains on different countries, and how countries should participate in the value chain at different stages of development. Second, it is suggested to include articles on industrial upgrading in the literature review and incorporate the service element into the model. Third, the NRI (National Interest Rate) can be used as a measure of the digital economy, and the reasons for its selection in the paper are explained. Fourth, further elaboration should be provided on the theoretical analysis and hypothesis testing of the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the restructuring of global value chains, especially the sources of comparative advantage. Fifth, the specific characteristics of RCEP countries should be clearly identified, and research conclusions and policy recommendations should be extracted.

(The volunteers compiled and wrote the script based on the live stream content.)

Trade Agreement Special ReportandGuest scholars