The Impact of Digitalization on Technological Structure of China’s Exports: An Empirical Test Based on the Panel Threshold Effect Model

In the trend of digitalization reshaping the global value chain system, optimizing export technological structure is crucial for coping with complex international environments and enhancing core competitiveness. Based on panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2002 to 2019, this study explores the impact of digitalization on the technological structure of exports. Our findings reveal that (1) digitalization development significantly optimizes the technological structure of exports, and this conclusion holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) The structural optimization effect of digitalization development is constrained by its own level of development, exhibiting nonlinear characteristics in its influence on export technological structure. (3) Enhancing the development level of technology markets, improving technology absorption capacity, and consolidating traditional infrastructure can strengthen the structural optimization effect of digitalization development on exports. Our study enhances understanding of the effectiveness and limitations of digitalization development and provides valuable insights for formulating complementary measures to foster digitalization advancement.