The new technological revolution has not only created the digital economy, but has also accelerated the digital transformation of global value chains (GVCs). Digital technologies have reshaped the specialization within global value chains by reducing costs, enabling industrial chains and increasing added value in exports. However, GVCs also face salient risks in the digital economy era, as reflected in their spatial layouts. The enabling effect of digital technologies has led to the shortening and reshoring of global value chains. In value chain governance, dominant countries have imposed technological embargoes on ascendant countries, depriving them of key technologies. In the distribution of value, the imbalances in the specialization within GVCs and digital divides have aggravated global economic inequities. Given the new characteristics and risks of GVCs in the era of the digital economy, as well as the “dual circulation” development paradigm, China’s industrial chains and firms moving up the GVCs need to regard data, the fifth type of production factor, as a key to the enabling effect of the digital economy on industries. These measures will advance the digital transformation of traditional industries and the development of the digital industry, as well as allow industrial chains and innovation chains to work in tandem to facilitate favorable domestic circulation. At the firm level, enterprises should further develop endogenous innovation capacity to become leaders in innovation and free themselves from dependence on foreign sources for key technologies.

By building a composite index for measuring national digital economy development and sectoral digital intensities, this paper derives metrics of industry-level digital economy penetration under the framework of specialization within global value chains (GVCs), systematically analyzes the mechanisms through which digital economy development affects GVCs upstreamness, and examines the moderating effect of institutional quality. The study shows that different dimensions of digital economy development significantly boost GVCs upstreamness, a conclusion that holds even after accounting for endogeneity through dynamic panel models with instrumental variables based on past data. Further research shows that technological innovation capabilities and resource allocation efficiency have gradually become important channels for digital economy development to boost GVCs upstreamness. Adding indicators on institutional quality reveals that greater institutional quality not only directly promotes GVCs upstreamness but also reinforces the impact of digital economy development on higher GVCs positioning.

In recent years, the global booming of the digital economy has become a booster for China’s high-quality development. In the digital economy era, the digital upgrading of the industrial structure has become obvious. Based on a grey relational entropy model and dissipative structure theory, our empirical study reveals that the impact of the digital economy on the industrial structure varies over time. Since 2013, the digital economy has become an engine for China’s continuous industrial structure upgrading. By comparing the influence of the development of digital industrialization and the industrial digitization on industrial structure upgrading, we find that the former has a foundational leading role in the upgrading of the industrial structure, but the latter has a stronger impact. Therefore, the digital economy is an important driving force being able to lead the future upgrading of the industrial structure. China should rapidly promote the construction of new digital infrastructure and implement strategic spatial layouts for the development of digital industrialization while concurrently accelerating the industrial digitization. This will enable China’s economy to achieve higher-quality, more efficient and more secure development in the post-epidemic era. It is also an effective means for accelerating the development of a modern industrial system and will promote the upgrading of the economy.

This paper estimates the size of the digital economy in 38 countries between 2005 and 2018 and conducts an empirical study on this foundation. The results show that the digital economy has a significant role in promoting high quality economic development, primarily through industrial digitalizaion. Further research shows regional heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy, which is greater in developed countries. Analysis of the underlying mechanisms shows that the digital economy promotes high-quality economic development in both developed and developing countries by improving technological efficiency and technological progress. However, the effect of technological progress in developing countries is clearly weaker than that in developed countries. In addition, scale efficiency in developing countries are not strengthened by the digital economy. Therefore, high-quality economic development requires the digital transformation of traditional industries and promoting their integration with digital technologies.

Based on the panel data on 276 prefectural-level cities from 2011 to 2018, this paper uses longitudinal fixed effects models, panel threshold effects and instrumental variables to explore the relationship between digital economy development and human capital structure advancement. In addition, this paper examines how the development of the digital economy is related to human capital levels. The results show that digital economy development significantly boosts human capital structure advancement, as well as low-level and high-level human capital. However, the effect of digital economy development on midlevel human capital is not statistically significant. In terms of heterogeneity, we find that digital economy development significantly promotes human capital structure advancement in eastern and central-western regions of China, as well as in core and peripheral cities. Effects on the various levels of human capital show significant differences. Furthermore, digital economy development has a positive effect on human capital structure when industrial structure advancement is low. Past a certain threshold, however, the effect reverses. This paper suggests that each region should accelerate the development of digital infrastructure, rationally promote industrial structure advancement and boost the effectiveness of human resources to achieve high-quality economic development.

Since its traditional comparative advantages are on the wane, China should use digital economy to enhance its competitiveness of manufacturing export. Based on microscopic data of various regions in China from 2013 to 2020, this paper studies the relationship between digital economy and China’s competitiveness of manufacturing export, the internal mechanism of their influence, and the boundary conditions for the establishment of the relationship between digital economy and competitiveness of manufacturing export. Our conclusions include that: there is a significant positive spatial correlation between digital economy and export competitiveness; digital economy can not only enhance the export competitiveness of the region, but also have a positive impact on that of adjacent regions; innovation efficiency, the accumulation of human capital and synergistic agglomeration exerts a mediating effect when digital economy impacts China’s export competitiveness; and with the share of import trade as the threshold variable, the facilitating effect of digital economy on the export competitiveness of the western region is lower than that of the eastern region before the threshold, but significantly higher than that of the eastern , central and northeastern regions as well as the whole country after the threshold. Therefore, China should vigorously promote the construction of new digital infrastructure in the western region, and give full play to the role of new digital infrastructure in promoting trade upgrade. Through the improvement of human capital quality, the centralized development of digital economy and the overall improvement of innovation efficiency, we should gradually improve the international competitiveness of China’s export enterprises.

As a disruptive innovation, FinTech has posed risks in the financial industry that are more unidentifiable, sweeping, disruptive and influential. Given these new developments, deeper regulatory reform has become necessary to safeguard national financial security, and prevent and dissolve financial risks. On March 11, 2021, the 14th Five-Year Plan1 endorsed by the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress stressed that China will improve the modern financial regulatory system and shore up our weaknesses in the regulatory system, and boost the application of regulatory technology and financial innovation risk assessment. This marks that the establishment of a technology-driven financial regulatory framework has been put on the agenda. Based on an analysis of the essential implications and drivers of RegTech innovation, this paper discusses the theoretical logic of RegTech innovation. Technology enables intelligent regulatory processes, efficient information processing and robust risk control. The restructuring of the regulatory system has revealed shifts in regulatory paradigms. These include a shift from passive response to proactive change, a shift toward positive interactions between regulators and industry players, as well as more close coordination among regulators. These changes have resulted in more adaptable and efficient regulation. After summarizing foreign experience and Chinese practice, this paper presents optimal pathways for RegTech innovation in China in the following aspects: consolidating the rule-of-law foundation for RegTech innovation, speeding up institutional reforms, improving policy services, strengthening infrastructure development, and building multiparty cooperation mechanisms. This study serves as a reference for building a technology-centric modern financial regulatory system and a sound environment for FinTech development.