Abstract:

Starting from the intermediary effect of uncertainty， the impact of digital economy development on the scale and spatial distribution of enterprise trade is explored. Combining digital economy theory， the information theory， and the uncertainty theory， it is believed that digital economy development promotes enterprises’ export expansion through information acquisition and reducing uncertainty. In terms of empirical analysis， based on the China Customs Database， China Industrial Enterprise Database and China Urban Statistical Yearbook， the spherical distance between the region and Hangzhou as well as the number of post and telephone offices and fixed telephones in 1984 are used as the instrumental variables for digital economy development. It is shown that digital economy development can significantly promote the growth of enterprises’ export scale， optimize enterprises’ export trade margin and export volume-price structure. After considering the robustness of the digital economy index， zero trade issues， and endogenous factors， the empirical results are still robust. The analysis of the action mechanism shows that digital economy development mainly promotes enterprises’ export expansion by reducing uncertainty. The analysis of heterogeneity results shows that due to the differences in products， enterprises and cities， the driving effect of digital economy development on enterprises’ export expansion is also not the same. The research findings provide strong empirical evidence for understanding the mechanism by which digital economy development drives enterprises’ export expansion.

Key words: digital economy development, enterprises’ export expansion, information acquisition, uncertainty