劳动保护与企业出口产品质量--基于《劳动合同法》实施的准自然实验

Labor Protection and the Quality of Firms’ Export Products--A Quasi-Experiment Based on the Implementation of Labor Contract Law

本文利用2004—2013年中国工业企业数据和海关进出口数据,以2008年《劳动合同法》实施为冲击,采用双重差分模型研究劳动保护对企业出口产品质量的影响。研究发现:《劳动合同法》的实施会通过提高企业人力资本投资、管理效率及强化劳动者生产的"干中学"效应三条途径显著提升高劳动密集型企业的出口产品质量,且这一促进作用对经营时间较长、生产率较高、多产品出口、非国有、纯加工贸易及高法制执行效率区域的高劳动密集型企业影响更大。进一步地,《劳动合同法》的实施不仅以扩展边际方式实现企业出口产品质量升级,还显著降低企业出口产品质量分散度,促进企业内资源优化配置。本文的研究结论为中国劳动力市场制度下一步调整提供了政策思考。

Based on the data of Chinese industrial enterprises and import and export from 2004 to 2013, this paper adopts the difference-in-difference technique to study the impact of labor protection on the quality of enterprises’ export products, taking the implementation of Labor Contract Law in 2008 as a shock. This paper shows the implementation of Labor Contract Law significantly promotes the quality of export products of high labor-intensive enterprises by strengthening the learning-by-doing effect of laborers, improving enterprises’ investment on human capital and management efficiency. Furthermore, the promotion effect is stronger for enterprises with longer operation hours, high productivity enterprises, multi-product export enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, pure processing trade enterprises and enterprises in regions with higher law enforcement efficiency. In addition, the implementation of Labor Contract Law not only improves the quality of enterprises’ export products along the extensive margin, but also significantly reduces the quality dispersion of enterprises’ export products and promotes the optimal allocation of resources within enterprises. The conclusions provide policy implications for further adjustment of China’s labor market institutions.