Mystery of regional divergence in China's digital trade:An explanation from the perspective of entrepreneurship
The development of digital trade in China,with cross-border e-commerce as a typical representative,exhibits significant regional divergence,posing obstacles to coordinated regional development.However,this topic has been scarcely explored in existing literature.Taking cross-border e-commerce exports as an example and utilizing the foundation of the regional private economy as a representation of entrepreneurial endowments,this paper explains the puzzle of regional divergence in China's digital trade with approximately 400 million cross-border e-commerce logistics records.The findings are as follows.First,the cities with a stronger private economy foundation have more cross-border e-commerce exports.This conclusion cannot be substituted by competitive factors such as human capital,internet development,traditional trade exports,cross-border e-commerce policies,or historical trade ports.The baseline result is highly robust when using the shortest distance to historical commercial centers during the Ming and Qing dynasties as an instrumental variable.These results indicate that the difference in entrepreneurial endowments is an important explanation for digital trade regional divergence.Second,from the perspective of export decomposition,the cities with a better private economy foundation have larger cross-border e-commerce export extensive margin and quantity,with no significant differences in intensive margin and price.Third,the promotional effect of entrepreneurship on cross-border e-commerce exports depends on the level of a city's soft and hard infrastructure;the more comprehensive the road infrastructure and the higher the level of government concern,the more significant the promotion effect.Fourth,the cities with a stronger private economy foundation also display greater risk-taking,resource acquisition,market adaptation,and industry collaboration capabilities,which are crucial reasons for the better development of cross-border e-commerce.The conclusions provide important references for promoting the coordinated development of the digital economy and common prosperity from the perspective of entrepreneurship.
digital tradeentrepreneurshipcross-border e-commerce exportregional divergenceprivate economy
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
