The Impact of Digitalization on the Global Value Chain Position of China's Manufacturing:Theoretical Mechanisms and Empirical Analysis
Digitalization will reconstruct the division of labor and value systems in manufacturing industry,ser-ving as a crucial means for the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry,and its ascension to the higher end of the value chain.This paper establishes measurement indicators and uses the entropy weight method to calculate the digitalization level of manufacturing in provinces and cities in China.It measures the global value chain position of manufacturing in each province and city of China from the dual perspectives of the product of ex-port technology complexity and domestic value-added ratio in export.Using levels of regional development,export trade,human capital,and outward foreign direct investment as control variables,and industrial structure upgra-ding,manufacturing productivity,and low-skilled labor as mediating effect variables,this paper constructs a fixed-effects model and a mediating effect model with manufacturing's global value chain position as the variable being explained and manufacturing digitalization as the explanatory variable.The impact of manufacturing digitali-zation on its global value chain position is empirically examined and analyzed.Research findings show that manu-facturing digitalization promotes the ascension of its global value chain position,with the promoting effect being more significant in the long term than in the short term,and reflecting a certain hysteresis effect.The impact of manufacturing digitalization on its global value chain position presents heterogeneity in different regions and digitali-zation factors:the positive promoting effect is most significant in the eastern region of China,while less significant in the central and western regions of China.The impact of the digital environment is the greatest,followed by digit-al support,with digital outcomes having the weakest effect.Manufacturing digitalization promotes the upgrading of its global value chain position through two paths:industrial structure upgrading and substitution of low-skilled la-bor,while productivity improvement does not have a mediating effect.
manufacturing industrydigitalizationglobal value chain positionthe upgrading of industrial structuremanufacturing productivitylow-skilled labor