Has Artificial Intelligence Boosted the Technical Complexity of Service Exports?Evidence from 29 Major Economies
The application of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence(AI)in the service field has promoted the gradual development of traditional service trade towards digitalization and in-telligence.Based on the AI development indices provided by Stanford University from 2017 to 2021 and the"country-industry"level data of service trade,this paper conducts an empirical study on the impact of AI on the technical complexity of service exports and its mechanism.The results show that AI significantly promotes the improvement of the technical complexity of service exports,which is still valid after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests.This promotion is mainly a-chieved through the mechanism of improving service efficiency and human capital level of the service industry.The lower the cost,the higher the internet activity and the faster the broadband speed of the exporting country,the more it can enhance the enabling effect of AI on the technical complexity of service exports,but the restrictions on digital service trade,cross-border data flow and intellec-tual property rights will weaken this enabling effect.Moreover,the enabling effect is mainly con-centrated in countries with strong AI innovation capabilities.Finally,AI has significantly promoted the technical complexity of trade and export between modern service industries and producer services industries.This paper expands and deepens the research on the evaluation of the effect of AI on trade in services,and provides a reference for China's decision-making to empower the high-quality development of trade in services through digital technologies such as AI.
Artificial IntelligenceTrade in ServicesExport Technical ComplexityDigital Tech-nology
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