理顺流通是否有助于提高制造业企业生产效率——基于流通体制改革试点的研究

Can Straightening out Circulation Improve the Efficiency of Manufacturing Firms——Evidence from the Reform of the Circulation System

流通业是中国最早进行市场化改革的领域。伴随着市场化改革,流通业经历了快速发展,内外贸市场一体化逐步走向成熟。本文基于流通体制改革试点构建自然实验,实证分析了流通业在促进制造业企业发展过程中的基础性作用及其影响机制。研究发现,流通体制改革对制造业企业全要素生产率的增长具有显著的促进作用。这一发现在考虑平行趋势假设、安慰剂检验、遗漏变量和生产效率的测算方式等问题后依然稳健。机制分析表明,一方面,流通体制改革减少了企业存货,降低了企业存货成本,进而提高企业生产效率;另一方面,流通体制改革提高了企业新产品产值,促进了企业产品创新,从而提高企业生产效率。异质性结果显示,流通体制改革对地方保护程度高、流通成本高、流通效率低和产能利用率低的行业内的企业生产效率具有显著正向影响。本研究为双循环新发展格局下推进制造业转型升级提供了政策启示。

The circulation industry is the first field to carry out market-oriented reforms in China.With market-oriented reforms,the circulation industry has experienced rapid development,and the integration of domestic and foreign markets has gradually matured.This paper empirically analyzes the basic role and mechanism of the circulation industry in the process of promoting the development of manufacturing firms through the pilot reform of the circulation system.The study finds that the reform of the circulation system has a significant role in promoting the growth of total factor productivity of manufacturing firms.This finding remains robust after considering issues such as the hypothesis of parallel trends,placebo tests,missing variables,and efficiency measurement method.Mechanism analysis shows that,on the one hand,the reform of the circulation system has reduced firm's inventories and lowered the cost of firm's inventories,thereby increasing firm's efficiency;on the other hand,the reform of the circulation system has increased the value of new products of the firm,promoted product innovation,and thus improved the firm's efficiency.The heterogeneity results show that the reform of the circulation system has a more obvious promotion effect on the efficiency of firms in industries with high local protection,high circulation costs,low circulation efficiency and low capacity utilization.This paper provides policy implication for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry under the new dual-cycle development pattern.