Research on the Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on China's Export Resilience

Abstract

Against the backdrop of persistent turbulence in the global trade environment, enhancing export resilience is crucial to the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade. As the underlying foundation of the digital economy, digital infrastructure plays a vital role in stabilizing exports and withstanding external shocks. This paper employs provincial panel data from China spanning 2010 to 2023, constructs a comprehensive index to measure the level of digital infrastructure development, and calculates an export resilience indicator. Using a two-way fixed-effects model for empirical analysis, the study finds that: the improvement of digital infrastructure significantly enhances regional export resilience, and this conclusion remains valid after robustness tests; mechanism analysis shows that enhanced supply chain flexibility and expanded openness are important transmission channels; heterogeneity analysis indicates that the empowering effect of digital infrastructure is more pronounced in central and western provinces and in regions with high e-commerce activity. Based on these findings, the paper proposes policy recommendations such as differentiated deployment of regional digital infrastructure and coordinated development of hardware construction and market applications, providing decision-making references for fostering foreign trade risk-resistance capacity.