What is it about?
In the new era of international trade, escalating uncertainty and the swift development of the digital economy stand out as two pivotal transformations. These phenomena individually exert significant influences on enterprises' exports; however, their combined effects on export resilience remain underexplored. Hence, drawing on existing theories, this paper analyzes the weakening effect of economic policy uncertainty on export resilience and explores the influence of regional digital economic development on this attenuation effect. Furthermore, empirical tests are conducted using micro-level data from China. The study findings reveal: (1) Economic policy uncertainty weakens firms' export resilience by increasing transaction costs; (2) Digital economic development mitigates this weakening effect by reducing transaction costs, with a more pronounced effect observed among highly efficient firms. The findings suggest that amid escalating uncertainty, vigorously promoting digital economic development holds profound policy significance for the high-quality development of international trade.
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Why is it important?
The main theoretical contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) it analyzes the relationship and channels of influence between economic policy uncertainty and export resilience; (2) it explores the impact and channels of influence of the digital economy on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and enterprise export resilience. Additionally, it examines the heterogeneous effects of the digital economy's regulatory role from the perspective of differences in enterprise productivity. The primary practical contributions of this paper also involve two aspects: (1) employing highly classified trade data, it empirically tests the moderating effect of the digital economy on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and export resilience; (2) the conclusions of this paper bear significant policy implications, aiding emerging market countries, such as China, by providing relevant policy insights to cope with economic policy uncertainty.
Perspectives
This paper principally examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty resulting from external shocks on the export resilience of enterprises. Furthermore, it explores the role played by the regional level of digital economic development and examines its heterogeneity from the perspective of differences in enterprise productivity. The study also confirms that the digital economy's influence on export resilience in uncertain environments occurs by reducing transaction costs. Thus, the paper provides empirical evidence for the microscopic impact mechanisms of the relationship between the digital economy, economic policy uncertainty, and enterprise export resilience.
Dr. Xiugang Zhu
Hefei University of Technology
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This page is a summary of: Economic policy uncertainty and enterprise export resilience in China: Does the digital economy matter?, Heliyon, May 2024, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31091.
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