从窄带到宽带:信息摩擦与初次分配

From Narrowband to Broadband:Information Frictions and Initial Distribution

提高劳动收入份额对于改善收入分配结构、促进平衡发展具有重要意义。本文从信息技术变革导致劳动力市场信息摩擦下降的角度,为制造业劳动收入份额变化提供了新的解释。我们以宽带互联网的出现作为准自然实验,采用城市所在地理特征作为工具变量,结合双重差分模型分析了信息摩擦变化与企业劳动收入份额间的关系。研究发现,宽带互联网的出现显著提高了企业的劳动收入份额。当企业位于信息分享网络更发达的城市时,这一效应更为强烈。机制分析表明,宽带互联网提振劳动收入份额的具体机制并非传统的生产率增长渠道和销售扩张渠道,而是通过改善劳动力市场的信息条件,缓解企业的用工短缺程度,从而提高劳动收入份额。本文的研究结果为改革要素自主有序流动的体制机制、提高劳动报酬在初次分配中的占比提供了依据。

This study underlines the importance of the labour share of income in enhancing the structure of income distribution and promoting balanced development tools.It also proposes a novel perspective on changes in manufacturing labour share of income driven by reduced labour market information frictions facilitated by the IT revolution.Using the arrival of broadband internet in China as a quasi-natural experiment and the geographic characteristics of the city as instrumental variable,the correlation between changes in information frictions and the intra-firm labour share of income is analysed.The results show a significant increase in the intra-firm labour share of income with the arrival of broadband internet,especially in cities with much more developed information-sharing networks.Interestingly,the increase in labour share of income is not attributed to the channels of sales or productivity growth,but to the improvement of labour market information conditions and the reduction of firms’labour shortages.The findings provide valuable information for reforming the system mechanism of independent and orderly flow of production factors and increasing the share of labour remuneration in the initial distribution.