Are Workers Benefiting From Increases In Total Factor Productivity?

TFP has always been a key topic of common concern for domestic and foreign economists.The growth of TFP is also a key factor leading to long-term improvement in economic growth and living standards.However,in recent research,it has been found that the correlation between the increase in wages of workers and the increase in TFP has weakened,and the share of workers' income and benefits has not increased with the increase in TFP.So can workers benefit from increasing TFP growth? This is an important issue facing the society at present,but the existing literature on the discussion of the TFP issue pays little attention to the underlying mechanism and beneficiaries.In view of this,this article explores the impact of TFP growth on employment rates,income,and housing costs from an empirical perspective,and whether workers can benefit from TFP growth.Based on the 1998-2007 China Industrial Enterprise Database and 2000 and 2005 national 1% census data,we conducted empirical research at the city level.First,this paper uses the LP method to calculate the average annual TFP of each city.On this basis,matching the indicators of urban employment rate,housing price,and average wage in each database to construct the variables required in this paper.Then we construct a difference model and use import tariffs as instrumental variables.We empirically tested the beneficiaries behind the growth of TFP,and studied the impact of TFP growth on the employment rate of workers with different education levels and household registration.We also analyze the heterogeneity of the impact of TFP growth on wages in different regions and explore the underlying mechanism.The empirical results of this article found:(1)The growth of TFP is conducive to the improvement of the local employment rate.Rural low-skilled workers will benefit the most from the growth of TFP.(2)The growth of TFP has different degrees of impact on the average wages of enterprises of different ownerships,and state-owned enterprises have benefited greatly from the analysis.The growth of TFP has different degrees of impact on the average wage of enterprises of different ownerships,and state-owned enterprises have benefited greatly from it?Analyzing the sample by region,we can find that the increase in TFP has a greater impact on average wages in the eastern region,and has a significant promotion effect on the average wages in the western region.(3)The growth of TFP will promote the rise of local housing prices.Although nominal wages will also increase at the same time,since rents and other non-traded goods account for most of the labor consumption,the increased wages will be offset by increased rents and house prices,So homeowners will benefit from the housing market.Based on the above findings,this article gives policy recommendations from three aspects: promote the process of rural urbanization and support the transfer of employment of rural labor;stabilize the real estate market and establish a long-term management mechanism;formulate subsidy policies to promote coordinated regional development.Based on the existing literature,the research in this article further explores the impact of TFP growth on society's overall employment rate,average wages,and housing prices,and provides a new perspective for studying the beneficiaries behind TFP growth.It also puts forward practical policy suggestions for promoting China's regional coordinated development and supply-side structural reform.