Can the development of industrial intelligence improve the benefits of China's participation in global value chains?

This study aimed to construct an accounting method for the domestic value-added rate for exports by considering environmental costs and using a developing country, China, as an example, to measure the "positive" and "negative" economic benefits obtained by industrial sectors linking to the global value chains (GVCs), namely the comprehensive rate of return. On this basis, the impact of industrial intelligence on the comprehensive rate of return of the GVCs is further explored. When environmental costs are considered, the comprehensive rate of return of China's industrial sectors linking to the GVCs is reduced by approximately 15%. Industrial intelligence is conducive to improving the comprehensive return rate of China's participation in GVCs. And the accumulation of human capital and the improvement of the competitiveness of export products are important mechanisms for industrial intelligence to affect the comprehensive rate of return of the GVCs. The improvement of industrial intelligence level in pollution-intensive industries has the most obvious promotion effect on the comprehensive rate of return of GVCs, followed by capital and technology-intensive industries, while labor-intensive industries are not sensitive to this effect. • This study calculates the comprehensive return rate of China's participation in GVCs. • The comprehensive return rate is reduced by approximately 15%. • Intelligence development is conducive to improving the comprehensive rate of return. • Human capital and the competitiveness of export products are important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]