Enhancing Digital Economy: Optimizing Export Enterprise Markup and Resource Allocation Efficiency

The digital economy transforms global trade, creating new opportunities for exporters and sectors to improve international competitiveness. To understand the digital economy’s complex effects on microenterprises, this study uses a heterogeneous firm model and matched samples from China’s industrial enterprise and customs databases from 2004 to 2013. The paper explores the complex relationship between digital economy development, export enterprise markup, and resource allocation efficiency theoretically and empirically using panel regression analysis. Results show a sharp increase in export enterprise markup due to the digital economy’s production cost and productivity changes. Further disaggregation shows that digital economy progress, notably in the east, together with capital intensity, technology intensity, and non-state ownership, boosts export enterprise markup. Regions with fewer institutional impediments also improve. The study also shows how the digital economy reduces export enterprise markup discrepancies and improves resource allocation. These findings demonstrate how digital economy expansion drives innovation, efficiency, and competitiveness in global trade paradigms, supporting high-quality international trade growth and the knowledge economy’s goals.