Could Digital Trade Promote Global Value Chain Participation? Evidence from Multinational Data

Digital trade and global value chains are important topics in international trade, yet the relationship between them has yet to be fully verified. Based on the multinational panel dataset during 2007–2018, this article empirically studies the impact of digital trade on global value chain participation and its mechanism. The results show that digital trade significantly promotes global value chain participation. In terms of sub-dimensions, national competitiveness of digital services has a positive impact, while digital innovation environment has a negative impact. Digital trade is more conducive to promoting forward-linkage participation and the global value chain participation of developed countries. Digital trade promotes global value chain participation by reducing trade costs and improving technological innovation. The trade cost effect exists only in developed countries, and the technological innovation effect is verified in both developed and developing countries.