Abstract:
Technological progress, element endowment and institutional change are the three key factors in the evolution of labor division. Among them, technological progress plays a central role and affects the structure of element endowment and institutional change. The evolution of the international labor division shows that every important technological change in the world has promoted the development of international labor division with a different theoretical logic, in a new form and even with a new nature. At present, a new round of information technology revolution represented by digital technology is developing rapidly. Not only the technology involved in it but also the changes it will cause to element endowment and the required adaptive institutional transformation will be different. Specifically, digital technology will coordinate changes in element endowment and in institution and use a new theoretical logic jointly to fundamentally change the paradigm of industrial organization, the relative importance of different elements and the system of international economic and trade rules, thereby further promoting the reconstruction of global value chain. The chain will be adjusted and developed in the following directions: digitization of industry, diversification of supply, regionalization of layout, localization of orientation, and platform-based governance. In this context, exploring new ideas, finding new countermeasures, seizing new opportunities and meeting new challenges are not only the only way for China to upgrade its role in the global value chain but also the necessary choice for promoting and leading the reconstruction, adjustment and optimization of the global value chain and making greater contribution to it.