Employment Effects and Labor Mobility in Cross-Border E-commerce: Empirical Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_45How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Labor mobility; Cross-border E-commerce; Employment effect

Abstract

Digital technology has emerged as a pivotal driver propelling the booming of cross-border e-commerce, which has become a core force fostering China’s foreign trade growth and facilitating employment structure transformation. Based on multi-source comprehensive data spanning 2001 to 2014, this study empirically examines the impact of cross-border e-commerce on labor mobility from both individual and city dimensions. Results reveal that urban cross-border e-commerce scale exerts a robust positive effect on labor inflow, with a more pronounced impact in regions endowed with location advantages. It demonstrates strong attractiveness to labor forces in manufacturing, IT, and scientific research sectors, as well as male, rural-resident, and highly educated workers. Instead of stimulating entrepreneurship-driven employment, it realizes labor reallocation by optimizing job structures and enhancing employment quality, thereby promoting labor spatial mobility and human capital upgrading. The development foundation of cross-border e-commerce also exerts an impact on its attractive effect on labor mobility—specifically, the stronger the foundation, the more pronounced the driving effect. Furthermore, the development foundation of cross-border e-commerce exerts an influence on its attractive power over labor mobility—specifically, the stronger the foundation, the more prominent the facilitating role. Corresponding recommendations involve optimizing regional layout, strengthening professional talent cultivation, supporting key industries and SMEs, and improving labor mobility policies to achieve synergistic development.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jiaxin Du
AU  - Jiawei Chen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - Employment Effects and Labor Mobility in Cross-Border E-commerce: Empirical Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Economic Development and Business Culture (ICEDBC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 438
EP  - 445
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_45
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_45
ID  - Du2026
ER  -