IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v91y2026ics1544612325027126.html

Digital economy and corporate labor force structure: an analysis based on labor productivity efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Shu
  • Ma, Jun

Abstract

This article conducts an empirical analysis using data from publicly listed companies in China between 2012 and 2023. The findings reveal that, first, the digital economy can significantly enhance labor productivity; second, both the proportion of highly educated labor and the proportion of technical labor are positively correlated with labor productivity. Moreover, the digital economy plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between the proportion of highly educated labor, the proportion of technical labor, and labor productivity. The impact of the proportion of highly educated labor and technical labor on labor productivity exhibits significant heterogeneity between high-tech enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Shu & Ma, Jun, 2026. "Digital economy and corporate labor force structure: an analysis based on labor productivity efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:91:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325027126
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.109463
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325027126
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.109463?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cui, Xiao & Li, Pingrui, 2025. "Digital economy, environmental expenditure, and green total factor productivity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Kong, Dongmin & Cheng, Xu & Jiang, Xiandeng, 2021. "Effects of political promotion on local firms’ social responsibility in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 418-429.
    3. Zhang, Zhuo, 2023. "The impact of the artificial intelligence industry on the number and structure of employments in the digital economy environment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    4. Han, Yue & Yang, Jie & Ying, Limeng & Niu, Yanfang, 2024. "The impact of corporate digital transformation on labor employment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    5. Jia, Xiao & Lei, Ziyu & Dai, Yunhao & Kong, Dongmin, 2026. "Green mergers and acquisitions: Unveiling the greenwashing motive," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Wang, Yanan & Liang, Shangkun & Kong, Dongmin & Wang, Qin, 2019. "High-speed rail, small city, and cost of debt: Firm-level evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    7. Cheng, Yiming & Zeng, Bo & Lin, Weixing, 2024. "Heterogenous effects of inclusive digital economy and resource distribution mismatch on corporate ESG performance in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Tao Zhang & Zhan-Zhong Shi & Yi-Rong Shi & Neng-Jun Chen, 2022. "Enterprise digital transformation and production efficiency: mechanism analysis and empirical research," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 2781-2792, December.
    9. Pan, Wenrong & Xie, Tao & Wang, Zhuwang & Ma, Lisha, 2022. "Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 303-311.
    10. Feng, Rui & Shen, Chen & Guo, Yiyang, 2024. "Digital finance and labor demand of manufacturing enterprises: Theoretical mechanism and heterogeneity analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 17-32.
    11. Li, Chengming & Huo, Peng & Wang, Zeyu & Zhang, Weiguang & Liang, Feiyan & Mardani, Abbas, 2023. "Digitalization generates equality? Enterprises’ digital transformation, financing constraints, and labor share in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Yu & Zhang, Hao & Liang, Chunyan & Feng, Yu & Hu, Feng, 2023. "Impact of the digital economy on high-quality urban economic development: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Ying Wu & Li Deng & Wen Huang, 2025. "Digital transformation and corporate Labor costs for ordinary employees," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 165-169, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Jing & Zhang, Xuebing & Tian, Qianhai, 2026. "Digital-intelligent transformation, financing constraints, and the high-quality development of tourism enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Fu, Shuke & Ge, Yingchen & Hao, Yu & Peng, Jiachao & Tian, Jiali, 2024. "Energy supply chain efficiency in the digital era: Evidence from China's listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Wang, Yizi & Li, Lanyi, 2024. "Digital economy, industrial structure upgrading, and residents' consumption: Empirical evidence from prefecture-level cities in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1045-1058.
    4. Tian, Lichuan & Sun, Kai & Yang, Jie & Zhao, Yang, 2024. "Does digital economy affect corporate ESG performance? New insights from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 964-980.
    5. Guo, Lu & Xiao, Fang, 2024. "Digital economy, aging of the labor force, and employment transformation of migrant workers: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 787-807.
    6. Zhang, Yingxin & Zang, Wenjiao & Sun, Chunxing, 2026. "Riding the terrain: Geographic influence on household adoption of digital finance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    7. Zhang, Linyan & Hu, Chunyu & Guo, Chuanyin & Wang, Jianguo, 2024. "Digital economy, technical change and total factor productivity: Empirical evidence from high-tech industry in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9).
    8. Meng, Chao & Zhang, Yimei, 2026. "Can value-added tax reform improve the export competitiveness? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Zhang, Huaqing & Cai, Cen & Zhang, Xiangjian & Tu, Yongqian & Zhu, Qianyu, 2024. "Relationship between business environment and regional innovation level: Examining the moderating role of digital finance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    10. Cao, Lihong & Wang, Yueying & Yu, Jinyi & Zhang, Yikai & Yin, Xiaoye, 2024. "The impact of digital economy on low-carbon transition: What is the role of human capital?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    11. Huang, Jie & Lu, Hongyang & Du, Minzhe, 2025. "Can digital economy narrow the regional economic gap? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. Guo, Panting & Bi, Jiefeng & Zhu, Mengnan, 2025. "Enterprise digital transformation and investment efficiency: Empirical evidence from listed enterprises in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    13. Hongbo Lei & Caihong Tang & Yunfei Long, 2024. "Study on the impact of digital economy on industrial collaborative agglomeration: Evidence from manufacturing and productive service industries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(8), pages 1-20, August.
    14. Shuai Che & Miaomiao Tao & Jun Wang & Dongkai Yang, 2026. "Can digital economy strengthen environmental governance? Insights from innovative capacity and vitality," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 1-29, February.
    15. Chen, Zhiang & Xu, Wenlong, 2025. "The role of the digital economy in enhancing green innovation: Evidence from Chinese A-share listed enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Qiao, Xiaole & He, Yang & Du, Qiang, 2025. "How does the urban digital economy drive labor allocation in China?—A perspective of factor mobility between digital and non-digital enterprises," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1159-1175.
    17. Yao, Meifang & Yang, Shuangyuan, 2026. "Digital business model innovation, operational efficiency, and corporate financial performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Liu, Yutong & Zheng, Mingbo & Shum, Wai Yan, 2024. "On the linkages between digital finance and real economy in China: A cointegration analysis," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(1).
    19. Xu, Weijun & Zheng, Puyuan & Li, Donghui & Xu, Rui, 2026. "Digital finance and corporate labor costs: An analysis from the perspective of financing channels," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    20. Jun Zhou & Tang-fei Hu & Zhengqi Wei & Dandan Ji, 2025. "Evaluation of High-Quality Development Level of Regional Economy and Exploration of Index Obstacle Degree: A Case Study of Henan Province," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 10566-10598, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:91:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325027126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.