Abstract: Fully exploiting the quality upgrading effect of export products of the internal and external two-way value chain division and interaction is of great significance to enhance the endogenous power of domestic circulation and improve the quality of international circulation. From the perspective of vertical specialized division of labor, using the multi-regional non-competitive input-output table of 30 provinces in China from 2002 to 2017, the data of China Industrial Economic Statistical Yearbook, the Customs database and the data of China Industrial Enterprise Database, this paper empirically studies the impact of internal and external two-way value chain division and interaction on the quality of China’s manufacturing export products. The results show that participation in global and domestic value chain division of labor can both significantly promote the quality improvement of China’s manufacturing exports, but there is a substitution relationship between the two promoting effects. After conducting endogeneity and robustness analysis, the conclusion still holds true. The promotion effect and interactive substitution effect of global and domestic value chain division of labor on the quality of China’s manufacturing exports are more significant in coastal areas. The division of labor in global and domestic value chains can significantly improve the quality of export products in knowledge intensive industries, and there is a substitution relationship between the two in terms of the improvement effect of export product quality, while the impact on capital and labor-intensive industries is the opposite. The impact of different division of labor and interaction modes in the global and domestic value chains on the quality of China’s manufacturing exports exhibits asymmetric characteristics, and the interaction of non aligned division of labor modes in the global and domestic value chains is the main way to improve the quality of export products.

Key words: global value chains, domestic value chain, quality of export products, asymmetric features