With deepening digital technology applications in international trade, e-commerce platforms have become a major avenue for firm export. Based on a multicountry, multi-product heterogeneous firms trade theory model, th...With deepening digital technology applications in international trade, e-commerce platforms have become a major avenue for firm export. Based on a multicountry, multi-product heterogeneous firms trade theory model, this paper investigates the firm export effects of e-commerce platforms, and empirically tests the inferences from the model using data from Alibaba China Station, China industrial enterprises data, and China customs data from 2000 to 2009. Our estimation result shows that overall, e-commerce platforms significantly increase firm export probability and volume;e-commerce platforms enable firms to export products of different types to more countries by reducing the cost of information and export markets threshold while raising trade efficiency. Further analysis of enterprise heterogeneity reveals that SMEs, firms in China's eastern region, and general exporters benefit more from e-commerce platforms than other types of firms do.展开更多
文摘With deepening digital technology applications in international trade, e-commerce platforms have become a major avenue for firm export. Based on a multicountry, multi-product heterogeneous firms trade theory model, this paper investigates the firm export effects of e-commerce platforms, and empirically tests the inferences from the model using data from Alibaba China Station, China industrial enterprises data, and China customs data from 2000 to 2009. Our estimation result shows that overall, e-commerce platforms significantly increase firm export probability and volume;e-commerce platforms enable firms to export products of different types to more countries by reducing the cost of information and export markets threshold while raising trade efficiency. Further analysis of enterprise heterogeneity reveals that SMEs, firms in China's eastern region, and general exporters benefit more from e-commerce platforms than other types of firms do.
