Digital Sovereignty and the Reconfiguration of Comparative, Advantage: Toward a New Economics of Global Value
Keywords:
digital sovereignty, comparative advantage, algorithmic capital, global value chains, data governanceAbstract
The global economy is moving into a stage where data and algorithms shape production as decisively as land, labor, or capital. Earlier theories of trade—beginning with Ricardo’s idea of comparative advantage and the Heckscher–Ohlin factor-endowment model—were built on the assumption that countries prosper by specializing according to natural resources and industrial skills. In the digital era, however, advantage increasingly depends on who manages the main channels of information: data ownership, cloud systems, and algorithmic design. This study proposes a framework for digital comparative advantage that links the unequal distribution of data and digital capacity to new global disparities. It presents digital sovereignty—the ability of a state to govern and gain value from its data networks—as a key influence on national performance. The paper concludes that a fairer global order will require redefining sovereignty not only as a political concept but also as an economic and informational one, extending classical trade thinking to the realities of artificial intelligence.
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