劳动保护、用工成本与企业对外直接投资

Labor Protection,Labor Costs and China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment

以2008年《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》的颁布为背景,基于企业异质性理论的分析框架,本文对劳动保护、用工成本与企业对外直接投资的关系进行了研究。研究结果表明:《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》的实施显著提升了我国企业开展对外投资的概率;异质性分析显示,这种促进作用在东部地区企业、非高新技术行业企业、生产型对外直接投资企业以及高生产率企业样本中更加显著;《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》的颁布可以通过增加企业的工资薪酬、固定用工成本以及提高企业所面临的劳动保护程度三个机制来提升我国企业开展对外直接投资的概率,并通过对外直接投资提升了企业绩效。

China’s economy and society have undergone many profound changes over the past decades,including the rising labor costs,diminishing demographic dividends,and rapid growth of China’s outward foreign direct investment(OFDI).Considering the 2008 Labor Contract Law as a quasi-natural experiment,this paper constructed a double difference model to examine the relationships among labor protection,labor costs,and China’s OFDI.Using data on all Chinese listed companies in 2000-2014,the results show that the 2008 Labor Law significantly promotes China’s OFDI.Enterprise heterogeneity analysis further suggests that such promotion effect is more prominent for enterprises that are labor-intensive,in the eastern region,with high productivity,and in the industries with higher level of technology.It is also found that the Labor Law increases the probability of Chinese companies’foreign direct investment through three mechanisms:higher wages and salaries,greater fixed labor costs,and more labor protection.The empirical evidence indicates that better labor protection not only increases labor costs but also promotes China’s OFDI.