Beyond Borders, Beyond Barriers : An Empirical Study Of Tech Exports In The Digital Trade Age

Abstract: The objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of digital service trade barriers on technology product exports. The study uses panel data drawn from 40 countries over the period between 2013 and 2022. We create an index for digital service trade barriers and then undertake an empirical analysis to uncover the nature of their relationship. The results show that such barriers have a large negative impact on exports of tech products; this effect, however, varies among countries. It is observed that developing nations are more adversely affected than developed countries, which holds true also for non-G20 versus G20 members. We go a step further to investigate how the impact differs across policy areas within these barriers and provide recommendations on policies aimed at reducing them as well as promoting exports in light of our findings at the end of the paper.