Measurement of Digital Trade Efficiency in China and RCEP Countries: Based on the Super-Efficiency DEA-Malmquist Model_Vol. 2 No. 2 (JSE 2025)_Journal of Statistics and Economics (ISSN: 3005-5733)

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Measurement of Digital Trade Efficiency in China and RCEP Countries: Based on the Super-Efficiency DEA-Malmquist Model

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jse.202511201

Author(s)

Yudi Sun

Affiliation(s)

School of International Organisations, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of accelerating digital transformation of the international economic and trade landscape, Asia-Pacific digital trade under the framework of regional economic and trade agreements faces the dual challenges of differences in the level of digital economy development of member countries and synergistic efficiency improvement. This paper takes China and RCEP member countries as the research object, based on the panel data from 2015-2022, comprehensively uses the super-efficiency DEA model, Malmquist index method, and systematically analyses the digital trade efficiency in terms of static efficiency measurement and dynamic evolution trend. The study finds that: there are significant country differences in digital trade efficiency, institutional quality and technological endowment drive Singapore, Brunei and other developed economies to continue to lead, new infrastructure investment and industrial upgrading to promote the efficiency of China, Vietnam and other emerging markets to leap forward, Indonesia, Laos and other less developed countries subject to infrastructure gaps and institutional barriers lagging behind in efficiency; efficiency enhancement presents a double-wheeled technological progress-led and scale effects linkage, and the synergy between technology diffusion efficiency and market capacity constitutes a key growth pole, but external environment fluctuations and geo-economic shocks will significantly change the evolution path of efficiency through the technological conduction blockage, and the innovation of new trade modes has a strategic value to buffer the shocks.

Keywords

Digital Trade; Trade Efficiency; DEA Model; Malmquist Index

References

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