Recently, the team led by Professor Liu Youjin from the School of Business of Hunan University of Science and Technology (HNUST) has made significant progress in research on digital economy development and High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation. Their research paper was published in the November 2024 issue of Economic Research Journal, one of China's top journals in economics. This marks another important academic accomplishment of the research team.

Integrating digital economy into the framework of technological catch-up theory, the study explores the impact of digital economy development on the technological gap by analyzing data from 2010 to 2021 at the country level within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It also further investigates the "pulling effect" that China's collaboration with smaller BRI nations has on their technological catch-up from the perspective of digital economic cooperation under the BRI. The findings indicate that, under the influence of the digital economy, the technological gap between BRI countries and frontier nations follows a U-shaped trend initially widening before narrowing. The findings indicate that, under the influence of the digital economy, the technological gap between BRI countries and frontier nations follows a U-shaped trend—initially widening before narrowing. This pattern reflects a shift from a technological divide to a process of technological catch-up.

This study reveals novel characteristics and patterns in the technological catch-up of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) routes against the backdrop of digital economy development. It enriches the academic approaches in the field of technological catch-up by later-developing countries, providing empirical evidence and practical approaches for relatively underdeveloped BRI countries, particularly smaller ones, to achieve technological catch-up through digital economy cooperation.

This research is funded by a major project of the National Social Science Fund of China, titled "Research on Industrial Transfer Modes and Pathways between China and BRI Countries from the Perspective of Symbiosis Theory" (Grant No. 17ZDA046).

(Translated by HU Zhuojun and XIE Wenjie)