China’s Digital Economy: Opportunities and Risks

Longmei Zhang and Sally Chen

No 2019/016, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: China’s digital economy has expanded rapidly in recent years. While average digitalization of the economy remains lower than in advanced economies, digitalization is already high in certain regions and sectors, in particular e-commerce and fintech, and costal regions. Such transformation has boosted productivity growth, with varying impact on employment across sectors. Going forward, digitalization will continue to reshape the Chinese economy by improving efficiency, softening though not reversing, the downward trend of potential growth as the economy matures. The government should play a vital role in maximizing the benefits of digitalization while minimizing related risks, such as potential labor disruption, privacy infringement, emerging oligopolies, and financial risks.

Keywords: WP; China; firm; payment; industry; pay; Digital economy; Fintech; Productivity; Employment; Financial stability; fintech company; market structure; money market fund; data sharing; venture capital; fintech industry; aggregate employment growth; third-party payment platform; supply chain; firms in the U.S.; ICT company; third-party payment system; Digitalization; Information technology in revenue administration; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2019-01-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict, nep-mac, nep-pay and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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