开放促进公平:资本市场开放对劳动收入份额的影响研究——基于沪港通的准自然实验

Openness Promotes Fairness:Research on the Effect of Capital Market Liberalization on Labor Income Share Based on the Quasi-natural Experiment of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect

发挥资本市场对劳动收入份额的提升作用对于促进社会公平、实现共同富裕至关重要。基于2014年沪港通交易制度的实施构造准自然实验,采用双重差分模型实证考察资本市场开放对上市企业劳动收入份额的影响。研究结果表明:沪港通交易制度的实施显著促进了上市企业劳动收入份额的提升。从影响机制来看,资本市场开放主要通过融资效应、收入效应以及高技能劳动力就业效应三个渠道对劳动收入份额产生重要作用。拓展性分析发现,在中西部地区企业、非国有企业、劳动密集型企业、信息透明度较高企业和内部监管较强的企业中,沪港通交易制度的实施对劳动收入份额的提升效应更为强烈。而且,资本市场开放主要提升了职工劳动收入份额,对高管劳动收入份额的提升效应并不明显。本研究有利于理清资本市场开放与劳动收入份额之间的关系,也为我国在构建更高水平开放型经济新体制过程中实现共同富裕提供了新的视角。

The capital market is in a pivotal position in the process of China’s economic development. Building a “standardized, transparent, open, dynamic, and resilient” capital market and promoting the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation have become important impetus for the transformation, upgrading and high-quality development of China’s economy. The opening of the capital market is an important part of China’s construction of a new high-level open economic system as well as an important measure of the capital market reform. Since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the two-way opening of China’s capital market has been gradually accelerated. The implementation of important trading mechanisms, such as Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Shanghai-London Stock Connect and China-Japan ETFs has also further deepened the opening up of the capital market and has a profound impact on China’s economic development. Among these trading mechanisms, Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, including Shanghai Stock Connect and Hong Kong Stock Connect, was the first to be implemented. On November 17, 2014, the first batch of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect pilots was officially launched, of which 568 stocks were the subject of Shanghai Stock Connect, accounting for 58% of the total number of Shanghai A-share listings that year. And rapid development was soon achieved. With the continuous acceleration of the opening process, the economic effects of the opening of the capital market have gradually attracted widespread attention among the economists. Scholars have carried out a series of analyses on this important topic from both micro and macro perspectives, and obtained rich research conclusions. However, few scholars focus on the effect of the opening of the capital market on the labor income share. Increasing the share of labor income in primary distribution is an important basis for improving social welfare and ensuring fair income distribution. In the context of the new journey of China’s economy towards high-quality development, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to investigate the profound impact of the opening of the capital market on the labor income share and explore the path of economic development to achieve common prosperity. Based on the implementation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect system in 2014 to construct a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses DID(Difference-in-Difference) method to empirically examine the impact of capital market opening on the labor income share of listed companies. The research results show that the implementation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system has significantly increased the labor income share of listed companies. From the perspective of the impact mechanism, this effect is mainly achieved through the financing effect, income effect, and the employment effect of high-skilled labor. Further analysis finds that, for central and western regions enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, labor-intensive enterprises, enterprises with high information transparency and strong internal supervision, the implementation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system has a greater effect on the increase of labor income share. Moreover, the opening of the capital market mainly contributes to increasing the labor income share of employees, and the improvement effect on the labor income share of executives is not obvious. This study is helpful to clarify the relationship between capital market opening and labor income share. At the same time, it also provides a new perspective for achieving common prosperity in the process of high-quality economic development of China. This research has important policy implications. Firstly, we must continue to steadily promote the two-way opening of the capital market. It’s important to coordinate “bringing in” and “going out”, promote the capital market reform, improve the interconnection mechanism of the capital market, and promote the formation of an all-round opening up of the capital market. Secondly, it is necessary to solve the problem of corporate financing and reasonably increase the labor income. On the one hand, in order to better meet the financing needs of enterprises and the real economy, it is necessary to build a multi-level and wide-coverage effective financial service supply system, optimize the efficiency of financial resource allocation. On the other hand, it is advisable to establish a sound income distribution mechanism that meets the requirements of the socialist market economy, and reasonably raise the labor income level. Finally, it is also important to pay equal attention to the expansion of the employment scale and the improvement of labor skills, so as to stabilize the economy by stabilizing employment.