劳动力成本上升与企业数字化转型——来自制造业上市公司的经验证据

Rising Labor Costs and Digital Transformation of Enterprises——The Empirical Evidence From the Listed Manufacturing Companies

为验证“刘易斯拐点”时期我国制造业企业是否会通过“倒逼”的方式进行数字化转型,本文以2013~2021年沪深A股制造业上市公司为样本,实证考察劳动力成本与企业数字化转型的关系。研究结果表明,劳动力成本上升显著促进了企业数字化转型,该结论经过了一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。机制分析表明,劳动力成本上升主要通过自主创新激励、人力资本结构升级效应影响企业数字化转型。异质性分析发现,劳动力成本上升对企业数字化转型的影响在非国有企业、融资约束较弱的企业、劳动密集度企业、受儒家思想影响较深以及面临较强产品市场竞争压力的企业中更为显著。本文研究评估了劳动力成本上升的微观经济效果,也为影响企业数字化转型的因素提供了新的经验证据。

In order to verify whether China's manufacturing enterprises will carry out digital transformation through“back⁃wards”during the“Lewis inflection point”period,this paper takes the A-share manufacturing listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013~2021 as a sample to empirically examine the relationship between labor cost and enterprise digital transforma⁃tion.The findings show that rising labor costs have significantly promoted the digital transformation of enterprises,and this conclu⁃sion is still true after a series of robustness tests.Mechanism analysis shows that the rise in labor costs mainly affects the digital transformation of enterprises through the incentive of independent innovation and the upgrading effect of human capital structure.The heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of rising labor costs on the digital transformation of enterprises is more significant in nonstate-owned enterprises,enterprises with weak financing constraints,labor-intensive enterprises,enterprises deeply influenced by Confucianism,and enterprises facing strong competitive pressure in the product market.This paper evaluates the microeconomic effects of rising labor costs,and also provides new empirical evidence for the factors influencing the digital transformation of enter⁃prises.