Table 1_How do productive service inputs enhance a country’s position in the global agricultural value chain?.xlsx

Optimizing countries’ positional structure within production networks and improving domestic value added capture capacity have emerged as central issues for advancing highquality agricultural development across economies. As modern productive services gradually penetrate agricultural production systems, they have evolved into critical endogenous drivers for optimizing agricultural factor allocation and promoting value chain upgrading.</p>Methods<p>Based on panel data of 55 economies from 2001 to 2020, this study employs fixed-effects models, mediation models, and moderation models to systematically explore how productive service inputs affect a country’s positions in the global agricultural value chain and clarify the underlying influencing mechanisms.</p>Results<p>The empirical results show that productive service input significantly improves a country’s agricultural GVC status.

Mechanism tests confirm that productive services empower GVC upgrading through two core pathways: improving agricultural labor productivity and facilitating technological innovation. Meanwhile, the promotional effect is positively strengthened by increasing technical complexity in agricultural exports and human capital accumulation. Further heterogeneity analysis verifies evident differences in the empowerment effect across economic development levels, time periods, and GVC participation patterns.</p>Discussion<p>This study concludes that accelerating high quality productive service inputs and matching them with advanced human capital and export technology endowments provides a vital feasible path for countries to enhance their competitive advantages and achieve highvalue upgrading in global agricultural value chains.</p>