劳动力流转与资本深化——当前中国企业机器替代劳动的新解释  

Labor Turnover and Capital Deepening——A New Explanation for Replacing Labor with Machines in Current Chinese Enterprises

作　　者：宁光杰 张雪凯 NING Guang-jie;ZHANG Xue-kai(Business School,Shandong University,Weihai 264209,China;School of Public Finance and Taxation,Nanjing University of Finance and Economics,Nanjing 210023,China)

机构地区：[1]山东大学商学院 [2]南京财经大学财政与税务学院

出　　处：《中国工业经济》2021年第6期42-60,共19页China Industrial Economics

基　　金：国家自然科学基金面上项目“信息技术发展、技能转换与农村劳动力产业流向研究”(批准号71973081);山东省社会科学规划研究项目优势学科项目“信息技术发展对我国劳动就业及收入分配的影响研究”(批准号19BYSJ39)。

摘　　要：劳动力成本上升和部分企业倾向运用机器替代劳动是当前中国经济中出现的重要现象。与主要从工资成本等直接用工成本研究机器换人的传统视角不同,本文认为,企业层面较频繁的劳动力流转(较高的员工变动率、离职率以及临时工比例)带来雇佣成本上升,这一路径同样会促使企业更多地使用机器替代劳动和资本深化。利用世界银行中国企业调查、中国家庭收入调查等微观数据,本文验证了以临时工比例度量的劳动力流转率与资本深化之间的正向关系。具体来说,劳动力流转率升高会导致企业人均机器设备投资和人均研发投入提高,经过一系列内生性处理和稳健性检验后这一结论依然成立。进一步检验发现,劳动力流转率升高会间接增加企业成本并导致企业采取降成本措施。拓展研究发现,户籍改革滞后、劳动力市场不当管制以及企业和员工之间的信息阻碍等都会导致企业层面过高的劳动力流转率。本文的研究为当前中国企业出现的机器替代劳动等资本深化现象提供了一个新的解释,并强调深化体制改革、完善劳动力要素市场化配置体制机制可以降低企业层面不必要的劳动力流转,缓解劳动力成本过快上升,提升企业要素使用效率和竞争力。The rising labor costs and the inclined use of machines to replace labor in enterprises are important phenomena in current Chinese economy. Different from the traditional perspective of studying machines replacing labor mainly from wage costs and other direct labor costs, this paper argues that a new path of higher labor turnover rate at the enterprise level(the higher labor replacement rate, the separation rate, and the proportion of temporary workers) bring about an increase in employment costs, which also encourages enterprises to use more machines to replace labor and capital deepening. Using micro data such as World Bank China Enterprise Survey, China Household Income Project(CHIP) data, this paper verifies the positive relationship between labor turnover measured by the proportion of temporary workers and capital deepening. Specifically, the increase in labor turnover rate at the enterprise level leads to an increase in per capita machine investment and per capita R&D expenditure. The conclusion is still valid after a series of endogenous treatments and robustness tests. Further test finds that the rise in labor turnover rate indirectly increases the cost of enterprises and thus leads them to take cost-reducing measures. The extended study shows that lagging household registration system reform, improper labor market regulation and the information barriers between enterprises and employees all give rise to the excessively high labor turnover rate at the enterprise level. This paper provides a new explanation for the current phenomenon of machine replacing labor and the increasing capital deepening in Chinese enterprises. It also argues that through deepening institutional reforms and improving the market-oriented allocation of labor factors, the unnecessary labor turnover at the enterprise level can be reduced, the rapid rise in labor costs can be alleviated and the efficiency of the use of factors can be improved.

关 键 词：劳动力流转 资本深化 研发投入 体制改革 

分 类 号：F124[经济管理—世界经济]