儒家文化与企业家精神——一项流行病学研究

Confucian Culture and Entrepreneurship:An Epidemiological Study

自汉代以来,儒家文化都是中国传统文化的主体,潜移默化地塑造了人们的传统信念和价值观,对人们的经济决策有着重要影响。文章基于2014年和2016年中国劳动力动态调查(CLDS)数据,使用流行病学方法识别了儒家文化对企业家精神的影响。研究发现:(1)以明清进士密度衡量的儒家文化显著地提高了劳动力的创业概率,这在控制了劳动力出生地和14岁居住地经济条件、对样本进行反复清洗以及使用历代书院密度衡量儒家文化的检验中都是稳健的。(2)选取文庙建庙时长和到山东曲阜的距离作为儒家文化的工具变量,工具变量方法估计依然表明儒家文化显著地提高了劳动力的创业概率。(3)异质性分析表明,儒家文化显著地提高了"自雇"型创业和低教育组劳动力创业的概率,而对"雇主"型创业和高教育组劳动力创业概率的影响不显著;同时,外来文化的冲击可能在一定程度上削弱了儒家文化对劳动力创业概率的促进效应。上述结论说明,弘扬优秀的儒家文化有助于促进中国企业家精神的繁荣与发展,深入推进"大众创业,万众创新"的国家战略。

Culture,which belongs to informal institution,is traditional beliefs and values that are passed down from generation to generation and maintain stability in ethnic,religious and social groups.Since the Han Dynasty,Confucian culture has always been the main part of Chinese traditional culture.It subtly shapes people’s traditional beliefs and values,and has an important impact on people’s economic decision-making.Based on the data of China Labor-force Dynamics Survey(CLDS)in 2014 and 2016,this paper investigates the impact of Confucian culture on entrepreneurship by using epidemiological methods.The study finds that:(1)Confucian culture measured by the density of jinshi in the Ming and Qing dynasties significantly increases the labor force’s entrepreneurial probability,and it is robust in controlling the economic conditions of labor’s birthplace and 14-year-old residence,repeatedly cleaning samples,and measuring Confucian culture using the density of academies in past Dynasties.(2)Using the construction time of the Confucian Temple and the distance to Qufu,Shandong as the instrumental variable of Confucian culture,the instrumental variable method estimation still shows that Confucian culture has significantly improved the labor force’s entrepreneurial probability.(3)Confucian culture significantly increases the entrepreneurial probability of self-employed entrepreneurs and low-educated group of labor,but has no significant impact on the entrepreneurial probability of employer entrepreneurs and high-educated group of labor.Meanwhile,the comparative analysis of port cities and non-port cities in history indicates that the impact of foreign culture may weaken the promotion effect of Confucian culture on the labor force’s entrepreneurial probability.This paper makes contributions to the existing research in the following aspects:Firstly,based on the perspective of prosperity entrepreneurship,it provides a new theoretical and empirical understanding to clarify the relationship between Confucian culture and China’s economic growth.Secondly,it enriches the research literature of observing and explaining Chinese entrepreneurship from the perspective of traditional culture.Finally,it provides valuable clues and enlightenment for carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture.The policy implication of this paper is that carrying forward Confucian culture will help to further advance the national strategy of"mass entrepreneurship and innovation"and promote the prosperity and development of Chinese entrepreneurship.At the same time,to carry forward Confucian culture requires dialectical selection and innovation.It should vigorously promote traditional beliefs and values in Confucian culture such as"integrity"and"innovation",which are beneficial to the prosperity of entrepreneurship,and the content of restraining entrepreneurship in Confucian culture needs to be creatively transformed and annotated,so as to make it better integrated into the value system of the socialist market economy.