Investigating Characteristics and Influence Mechanism of Value-Added Trade Network of Producer Services

The process of economic globalization and the deepening of industrial division of labor increases the flow frequency of producer services between countries and regions, which affects the industrial upgrading and economic system construction. Producer services industry is an important engine of future world economic development. Understanding the evolution of its value chain network plays a significant role in clarifying a country’s position in the division of labor system and carrying out global early warning and prevention. The traditional statistical caliber ignores the trade of intermediate goods generated by global piecemeal production, which is prone to misjudge the real trade pattern. Therefore, from the perspective of global value chain (GVC), this paper constructs the global value network of producer services by adopting value-added accounting method and complex network analysis, and explores its structural characteristics and the determinants of the network hub status of various countries, so as to reveal the real benefits and international status of each country in the pattern of producer services trade. There are several findings yielded from this study as well. Firstly, domestic value-added (DVA) absorbed abroad and foreign value-added (FVA) contribute the most to the growth of producer services trade. Both the breadth and depth of trade in DVA network and FVA network have developed evidently, which helps countries to extend the length of production and the degree of embeddedness in the value chain. Secondly, the community distribution of value-added trade network of producer services shows regional characteristics, which can also break through the constraints of geographic location, and the change of community is in line with the trend of globalization. China’s enhanced status in the trade network enables it to participate in more links of the global value chain, which dilutes the leading ability of western economies such as the United States and Germany in the producer services trade. Finally, economic scale, physical capital and infrastructure can significantly improve a country’s position in the value-added trade network of producer services. In the case of conditional distribution, technological innovation and regional trade agreements also play a positive role. Based on this, we propose that countries should strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure and implement diversified and open strategies to enhance the network status of their producer services in the global value chain.