An Empirical Research On The Impact Of Rising Labor Cost On International Competitiveness Of China's Agricultural Products

In recent years,the international agricultural product market is becoming more and more fierce,and the trade deficit of agricultural products in China has continued to expand.In the context of Sino-US trade conflicts,the “No.1 central document” in 2019 clearly pointed out the need to implement agricultural product security strategies and coordinate the domestic and international markets to support and accelerate agricultural trade.Facing the current international trade pressure of agricultural products and the inevitable requirement of strengthening agricultural trade,it is fundamental to enhance the international competitiveness of agricultural products.Labor cost is widely regarded as one of the important factors affecting the international competitiveness of the industry,therefore,it is necessary to study the impact of rising agricultural labor cost on the international competitiveness of China's agricultural products and its internal mechanism.Firstly,this paper analyzes the change of agricultural labor cost from the three aspects of time series evolution trend,regional difference and industry comparison by using the average wage of agricultural employees and the employment price of effective labor.;on this basis,the paper analyzes the change of the production cost structure of China's major agricultural products from the perspective of factor input quantity and factor input cost.Secondly,from the production level and trade level respectively,the paper calculates and analyzes comparatively dominant competitive advantage and comparative advantage of 10 major agricultural products in China by using DRCC index,RCA index,CA index and TC index;based on this,the present situation of the overall international competitiveness of agricultural products in China is further analyzed.Finally,combining with existing researches and related theories,the paper clarifies the internal mechanism of the rising labor cost affecting the international competitiveness of agricultural products,then based on the Porter's Diamond model,this paper uses the panel data of 28 provinces in China from 2000 to 2017 and examines the impact of rising labor cost on the international competitiveness of agricultural products by using the individual fixed effect model.The research results show that:(1)China's overall agricultural labor cost has continued to rise rapidly.Spatially,there are significant differences in the average wage level of agricultural employees in different regions,with the eastern region always maintaining the highest level and the central region maintaining the lowest level;from the perspective of industry,labor-intensive agricultural products generally have higher employment price than land-intensive agricultural products,and the employment price of labor-intensive agricultural products is growing faster,the difference between the two will be further expanded.(2)The structure of agricultural production cost has changed.The labor input of peasant households keeps decreasing,the machinery input keeps increasing,and the intensity of fertilizer input keeps unchanged;the labor input cost and production cost of agricultural product production keep rising continuously,and the proportion of labor input cost remains the largest all the time.(3)The international competitiveness of China's agricultural products is declining,gradually shifting from competitive advantage to competitive disadvantage.The potential comparative advantages and dominant competitive advantages of 10 major agricultural products are gradually weakened,the production advantages of land-intensive agricultural products are almost completely lost,and they are generally at a competitive disadvantage;the overall international competitiveness of agricultural products in each province has gradually decreased,by 2017,the overall agricultural product RCA index in most provinces reduces to below 0.8,the CA index falls to a negative number,and the overall agricultural product TC index in more than 60% of the provinces is below 0.3.(4)The rising labor cost has a significant negative impact on the international competitiveness of agricultural products in China,and the negative impact is most obvious in the western region,while the smallest in the eastern region;scientific research investment has a negative regulatory role,which can alleviate the negative impact of rising labor costs on the international competitiveness of agricultural products.Based on the above research conclusions,in order to cope with the rising trend of agricultural labor cost and enhance the international competitiveness of China's agricultural products,this paper provides the following policy recommendations: first,increase the investment of machinery and improve the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer to optimize the structure of factor input;second,speed up the appropriate scale management of land and increase human capital investment to improve the substitution efficiency of other factors to labor;third,increase the source and adjust the structure of investment in agricultural scientific research to enhance the benefit of investment in agricultural scientific research.