人口老龄化加剧经济“脱实向虚”了吗?——来自中国上市企业的微观证据

Is the Population Aging Exacerbating the Economic“De-reality to Emptiness”?——Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

基于人口老龄化快速发展和经济“脱实向虚”两大重要现实问题,本文利用中国上市非金融企业样本,研究了人口老龄化对经济“脱实向虚”(企业金融化)的影响。研究显示:老龄化显著提高了非金融企业金融资产配置比重,并且该效应在非国有、盈利能力较弱和全要素生产率水平较低的企业中更大。进一步发现,实体经营资产与金融资产的收益率差异、低劳动力成本优势的丧失,是老龄化诱使企业将资金更多地配置于金融资产的重要驱动因素。

Based on two important issues in China: population aging and the economic“de-reality to emptiness”, this paper explores the effect of population aging on the economic“shifting from reality to emptiness”, that is, the financialization of firm by using the samples of Chinese listed non-financial enterprises. We show that: The marginal effect of aging population on the proportion of financial asset allocation of enterprises is significantly positive, and the effect is greater in enterprises that are non-stateowned, weaker profitability and lower total factor productivity. Further, this paper finds that the difference between the return rate of real sector enterprises and the return rate of financial and real estate industry, as well as the loss of low labor cost advantage of enterprises, are important driving factors for enterprises to allocate more capital to financial assets when facing the negative impact of population aging.