Abstract: Based on the data at the enterprise-product level, this paper adopts the bilateral continuous difference method to indirectly evaluate the impact of digital trade imports on wage distribution among companies. The findings show that, compared with traditional import trade, the digital trade import will promote the wages among enterprises to be more equalized, and this kind of promoting effect is mainly originated from the narrowing of the wage gap of the enterprises within the industry and the wages of the enterprises with their wages at the middle or up levels tending to the median wage inside of the industry. The digital trade import can drive the development of wage equalization among the enterprises by reducing the distance cost, increasing the complexity of the export technology and speeding up the speed of import trade; however, this promotion effect may be weakened by the widening of the price spread. It is found from further analysis that the enterprises are more likely to have the“substitution effect”in their employment and the“catfish effect”in their import when they carry out the digital trade import, both of the two effects would widen the wage gap between firms.

Key words: import, digital trade, wage equalization among firms