数字化转型与企业人力资本升级

Digital Transformation and Corporate Human Capital Upgrade

企业在数字化转型过程中是否会增加对高技能劳动力的需求,进而优化企业的人力资本结构?基于2013-2020年中国A股上市公司员工雇佣数据,本文对上述问题进行考察并分析其作用渠道。结果显示,数字化转型显著提升了企业本科及以上学历员工的占比,即优化了企业的人力资本结构,且该效应在低融资约束企业、非技术密集型行业和东部地区更为明显。作用机制检验证实,数字化转型显著增加了企业的固定资产投资和研发投资,扩大了企业经营规模,进而促使企业增加对高技能劳动力的需求。进一步研究发现,数字化转型显著提升了企业经营效率,同时增加了高管和普通员工的工资。上述结论表明,企业数字化转型具有技能偏向性特征,有助于企业劳动力结构转型升级。本文研究对数字经济背景下深入理解企业劳动力结构升级变化具有一定参考意义。

In recent years,China's digital economy has grown with the rapid development in emerging technologies.According to the 2021 White Paper on the Development of China's Digital Economy by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology,the digital economy demonstrated strong resilience despite the global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and contributed 38.6%to China's GDP growth.In March 2021,the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan proposed accelerating the building of a digital economy,digital society and digital government to drive overall changes in production,lifestyle and governance.The digital economy is gathering momentum and is now a part of China's national strategy.In this context,enterprises have wholeheartedly embraced digital transformation,trying to integrate information technology with the traditional modes of production and operation.Academic researchers are also focusing on topics related to the digital transformation of enterprises.Studies have examined the impact of digital transformation on specialization and division of labor,business performance,productivity and input-output efficiency.However,the literature does not discuss the impact of digital transformation on the human capital of an enterprise.Therefore,this study fills a gap in the literature by focusing on this topic.This study argues that digital transformation relies on the application of intelligent equipment to automate many routine and repetitive tasks through computer programming,which reduces the demand for low-skilled labor in enterprises,and shows the technology substitution effect of digital transformation.In contrast,integration of digital technology with an enterprise's production and operation activities also leads enterprises to deepen their capital.For example,enterprises may purchase more advanced machinery and office automation systems and accordingly improve the level of independent research and development of technology.These changes lead to the creation of many new high-skilled jobs and increase the ability of an enterprise to attract highly skilled manpower.This shows the technology complementarity effect and the scale expansion effect of digital transformation.Therefore,this study investigates whether and how digital transformation affects the upgrading of enterprise human capital.This study tests the effect of digital transformation on enterprise human capital structure and finds that digital transformation significantly optimizes the human capital structure of enterprises.This conclusion remains valid after accounting for model endogeneity,replacing the core variables,adjusting the model setting and changing the sample size.The mechanism test confirms that digital transformation significantly increases the fixed asset investment and R&D expenditure of an enterprise and its scale of operations.Thus,digital transformation mainly optimizes the human capital structure of enterprises through its technology complementarity and scale expansion effects.The results of heterogeneity analysis demonstrate that the optimization effect of digital transformation on enterprise human capital structure is more prominent in enterprises with less financing constraints and lower technology intensity and enterprises located in the eastern region than in enterprises with more financing constraints and higher technology intensity and enterprises located in other regions.The results of further analyses indicate that digital transformation increases the remuneration of executives and other employees and the operating efficiency of enterprises.This study makes the following contributions.First,it enriches the literature in the related fields.This study reveals the economic consequences of digital transformation and extends the literature by examining the relationship between AI and labor hiring by enterprises.Second,it provides new empirical evidence indicating how to optimize enterprise human capital structure.This study analyzes how digital transformation optimizes enterprise human capital structure by focusing on the technology substitution,technology complementarity and scale expansion effects of digital transformation.It provides empirical evidence for the change in labor employment structure in a digital economy.Third,the findings of this study have important practical implications.This study shows that digital transformation prompts enterprises to demand more highly skilled labor,and this effect varies according to the characteristics of industries and regions.These findings can provide a practical reference and theoretical basis for the government to formulate more targeted policies for digital economy development.