线上评价系统与中国跨境电商出口——来自eBay平台国内外卖家比较的证据

Online Evaluation System and Cross-border E-commerce Export——Evidence from Domestic and Foreign Sellers on eBay

作为新兴贸易业态,跨境电商凭借其多边化、网络化、短链路等优势,呈现高速增长态势,为外贸企业应对疫情冲击发挥了积极作用,成为中国经济发展的新动力。本文使用国内外卖家比较方法和eBay在线平台数据研究了跨境电商平台评价系统对信息不对称的影响。研究发现:第一,评价系统对来自跨境电商平台上卖家的销量具有促进作用;第二,相比于美国卖家,评价系统对来自中国的卖家影响更大,这意味着评价系统有利于缓解中国卖家和美国消费者之间的信息不对称程度;第三,利用反事实分析进一步发现,移除评价系统后中国卖家销量减少接近美国卖家销量减少的三倍,这从侧面进一步反映出在线评价系统的作用。本文的研究进一步丰富了现有评价系统相关的研究,可为政府和企业如何促进出口贸易发展提供参考借鉴。

In recent years, on the one hand, cross-border e-commerce has achieved rapid development and become a new driving force for global economic and social development relying on digital technologies including the Internet, cloud computing, and big data. On the other hand, however, Chinese digital platforms are also facing many internal and external challenges, such as market inefficiency caused by information asymmetry. In cross-border e-commerce transactions, there is information asymmetry both in online markets and international trade, which means that the information asymmetry in cross-border e-commerce transactions are more serious. However, there is no literature to directly study the impact of e-commerce platform review system on information asymmetry in international trade. This article uses the comparison method of domestic and foreign sellers on eBay platform to try and supplement in this regard. We find that:(1) Online review system has a boosting effect on sellers' sales.(2) Compared with US sellers, the online review system has a greater impact on sellers from China, which means that the online review system helps to alleviate the information asymmetry between Chinese sellers and American consumers.(3) Using the counterfactual analysis by removing the online review system, the sales reduction of Chinese sellers is close to three times the reduction in sales of American sellers. This article enriches the existing research perspectives of the review system, and also provides a theoretical reference for government and enterprises.