New Quality Productive Forces and Firms’ Cost Reduction and Efficiency Enhancement: Evidence from Chinese A-Share Listed Firms

This study examines whether firm-level new quality productive forces (NQP) are associated with cost reduction and efficiency enhancement in Chinese listed firms. Using an unbalanced panel of A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2024, we estimate firm- and year-fixed-effects models to test whether stronger NQP is linked to lower period-expense intensity and better operating efficiency. We conceptualize NQP as a multidimensional firm-level capability that combines human capital upgrading, innovation capability, digital transformation, green production, and data-factor utilization. The results show that higher NQP is significantly associated with a lower three-fee ratio, with the effect concentrated in management-expense intensity rather than sales-expense intensity. Mechanism-consistent evidence indicates that NQP is positively related to asset utilization, total asset turnover, and accounts receivable turnover, suggesting that the observed reduction in expense intensity is more consistent with efficiency-driven operating improvement than with simple expenditure compression. The association remains broadly stable across firm-size groups and is stronger in regions with more favorable digital and innovation environments. Robustness analyses confirm the stability of the baseline findings, although placebo-style and trend-based tests indicate that the evidence should be interpreted as strong panel associations rather than definitive causal effects. Overall, the study contributes to the literature by linking NQP to accounting-based operating outcomes that are closer to firms’ internal managerial processes than broad measures of firm performance.