The Silk Road e-commerce cooperation initiative and the digital value-added trade between China and the BRI participating countries

This paper examines the impact of the Silk Road e-commerce initiative on the digital value-added trade (DVAT) between China and the BRI participating countries, by constructing a staggered DID model and the indicators of simple and complex DVAT based on the Eora MRIO database from 1990 to 2022. The findings indicate that signing e-commerce cooperation memorandum significantly promotes DVAT between China and BRI participating countries. The Silk Road e-commerce initiative more effectively promotes digital value-added flows from China to BRI participating countries in simple DVAT, and it only promotes digital value-added flows from BRI participating countries to China in complex DVAT. The positive effects are primarily achieved through three pathways: narrowing the digital technology gap and reinforcing the institutional arrangements between China and BRI participating countries, as well as enhancing the comparative advantages in digital industries among China and BRI participating countries. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the Silk Road e-commerce cooperation initiative significantly promotes simple DVAT between China and the BRI participating countries that are positioned downstream in the digital global value chain (GVC), those with closer bilateral political relations, European countries, and high-income nations. Meanwhile, cooperation with Asian countries, and lower-income partners tends to increase complex DVAT, reflecting deeper industrial-chain integration.