IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/asiaec/v25y2026i2p74-93.html

Breaking Digital Barriers: The Role of Distance and Digital Infrastructure in ASEAN's Digitally Deliverable Services Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Wai-Mun Chia

    (School of Social Sciences Nanyang Technological University Singapore)

  • Ammu George

    (Queen's Business School Queen's University Belfast United Kingdom)

  • Taojun Xie

    (Nanyang Centre for Public Administration Nanyang Technological University Singapore)

Abstract

The rapid expansion of digitally deliverable services in ASEAN has transformed the region into a key player in global digital trade. Leveraging a gravity trade model, this study explores the impact of geographic distance and digital infrastructure on ASEAN's exports of digitally deliverable services. Our findings reveal three key insights: (1) both distance and digital endowments significantly influence digital deliverable service exports, (2) ASEAN's digitally deliverable services exports are determined primarily by their own digital infrastructure, with the digital endowment of the importing country being only marginally significant in explaining such exports, and (3) although the digital infrastructure of importing countries is not a significant determinant of any type of services trade—digitally deliverable, non-digitally deliverable, and overall services—it significantly affects merchandise trade from ASEAN.

Suggested Citation

  • Wai-Mun Chia & Ammu George & Taojun Xie, 2026. "Breaking Digital Barriers: The Role of Distance and Digital Infrastructure in ASEAN's Digitally Deliverable Services Trade," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 25(2), pages 74-93, Summer.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:asiaec:v:25:y:2026:i:2:p:74-93
    DOI: 10.1162/ASEP.a.988
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/ASEP.a.988
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/ASEP.a.988?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:asiaec:v:25:y:2026:i:2:p:74-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.