Does digital global value chain participation reduce energy resilience? Evidence from 49 countries worldwide

Abstract

The digital global value chains (DGVCs) embody the two major characteristics of the current era: globalization and digitalization. The DGVCs has a major impact on global economic development, but few studies have explored its impact on the energy system. We divide digital global value chain participation (DGVCP) into forward digital global value chain participation (FDGVCP) and backward digital global value chain participation (BDGVCP) and analyze their effect on energy resilience by employing panel data from 49 countries from 2007 to 2019. Our benchmark regression results provide empirical evidence of the negative effects of DGVCP, showing that FDGVCP and BDGVCP reduce energy resilience. Moreover, the negative impact of FDGVCP and BDGVCP is stronger in a transparent institutional environment. The results remain robust after causal identification. The mechanism analysis results show that FDGVCP and BDGVCP influence energy resilience through the scale channel, structure channel, and technology channel. Our research reveals that the DGVCs have a negative impact on energy resilience, contrasting with the conclusions of previous mainstream studies. Our findings underscore some important implications for avoiding the negative effects of DGVCs and enhancing energy resilience.