How are service automation and national ICT development associated with international trade in services?

This study aims to investigate how service automation is associated with the volume of international trade in services and how the interactions of automation, industry, and national ICT development are associated with it. We use data from the U.N. Comtrade, O*NET Online, the U.N. Global ICT Development Index, and the World Bank Open Data to test our hypotheses. We find that the marginal year-by-year growth rates of international trade in highly automatable services decreased in 2007–2017, whereas those of international trade in less automatable services have increased. ICT development is positively associated with the volume and annual growth rate of a country's service exports, but it is negatively associated with the volume and annual growth rate of the country's service imports. The growth rate of international trade in highly automatable services is lower for importing countries with advanced ICT, but it is higher for exporting countries with advanced ICT.