Abstract Post the Snowden and Cambridge Analytica episodes, concerns have been raised by governments and regulators on protecting consumer data collected and transmitted by various digital firms. Driven by concerns of privacy, national security, surveillance, and cyber terrorism, governments around the world have been erecting barriers in cyberspace through data localization. The extent of data localization varies from free flow of data, to stringent restrictions requiring all data to be stored only within the territorial jurisdiction of the country. Though there are certain legitimate concerns regarding protection of personal data, scholars and liberal economists have long proclaimed that any restrictions on the Internet and associated digital trade will have serious economic consequences. Data localization affects digital trade between consumers and producers of digital services to varying degrees. In this paper, we use agent based modeling to study the properties and behaviours of consumers and producers under varying data localization regimes. An augmented gravity model of trade with iceberg coefficient is incorporated to reflect distance-related costs between producers and consumers. Varying data localization compliance costs are included to reflect the effect of non-tariff barriers of data restrictions. Our extensive simulations indicate that there is often clustering of consumers around local firms in highly restrictive data localization regimes, thus enabling local firms to effectively compete against global multinationals. However, results also indicate that while free cross-border data flow enables intense competition amongst producers, data localization restrictions often limit consumer choice due to its effect on price and quality of services.

中文翻译：

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数据本地化对数字贸易的影响：一种基于代理的建模方法

摘要 在斯诺登和剑桥分析事件之后，政府和监管机构对保护各种数字公司收集和传输的消费者数据提出了担忧。出于对隐私、国家安全、监视和网络恐怖主义的担忧，世界各国政府一直在通过数据本地化在网络空间设置障碍。数据本地化的范围从数据的自由流动到要求所有数据仅存储在该国领土管辖范围内的严格限制。尽管在保护个人数据方面存在某些合理的担忧，但学者和自由经济学家长期以来一直宣称，对互联网和相关数字贸易的任何限制都会产生严重的经济后果。数据本地化在不同程度上影响消费者和数字服务生产者之间的数字贸易。在本文中，我们使用基于代理的建模来研究消费者和生产者在不同数据本地化机制下的属性和行为。加入了具有冰山系数的增强贸易重力模型，以反映生产者和消费者之间与距离相关的成本。包括不同的数据本地化合规成本，以反映数据限制的非关税壁垒的影响。我们广泛的模拟表明，在高度限制性的数据本地化制度中，本地公司周围的消费者通常聚集在一起，从而使本地公司能够有效地与全球跨国公司竞争。然而，