China & World Economy  / 49–75, Vol. 27,  No. 3, 2019

Policy Analysis and Development Evaluation of Digital Trade: An International Comparison

Shuzhong Ma, Jiwen Guo, Hongsheng Zhang*

Abstract

As an extension of traditional trade, digital trade is a new type of trade in the era of the digital economy. In this paper, we first analyze the digital trade-related strategies of eight leading economies through word clouds and dissect China’s digital trade-related policies using the word frequency method by sorting through the digital trade-related policy documents of 26 economies and Chinese provinces. We then evaluate the status quo of digital trade development in 111 countries and Chinese provinces by building a digital trade index system to determine the development environment and market potential. The results show that all countries attach great importance to digital technology, data and government guidance in the development of digital trade. The results also reveal that “development,” “service” and “construction” are the three most frequently used words in various Chinese documents. The overall level of China’s digital trade is at the global vanguard, but is characterized by uneven regional development. In the era of digital trade, traditional international trade theory is also in urgent need of breakthroughs and innovation.

Key words: cross-border e-commerce, development evaluation, digital trade, intelligent manufacturing, international trade theories

JEL codes: F17, F23, F44