Re-evaluation of China's Position in International Division from the Dual Perspectives of Export Technological Sophistication and Domestic Value Added

Reasonable evaluation of current China's position in international division is the key basis of judging China's export strengths and weaknesses as well as improving its position in international division. This paper constructs a new index of position in international division possessing both product and domestic value added attributes by integrating export technological sophistication and domestic value added.Then it constructs a theoretical model about understanding the differences in positions in international division based on input-output framework, and re-evaluates China's position in international division. It draws the results as follows:firstly, at present, China's position in international division is in a rank of the most backward economies when considering services export; Asian emerging economies' positions in international division are generally not high, and developed and resources-rich economies are in relatively higher positions in international division; secondly, from 1995 to 2009, the differences in positions in international division between China and US, India, Brazil have widened, while the difference in positions in international division between China and Germany is relatively stable, and the difference in positions in international division between China and Japan has been reduced to some extent; thirdly, the main reason for China's backward position in international division lies in export structure, namely China's ratio of services export is relatively low, and the reduction in domestic value added also has the increasingly important effect; fourthly, the evolution of the index concerning China's position in international division stems from industry attribute effect and the effect of domestic value added, and the export structure effect is very low. Therefore, the adjustment to export structure and the enhancement of domestic value added ratio are two important ways for China to improve its position in international division.