IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v49y2022ics1544612322002847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empirical test of the impact of the digital economy on China's employment structure

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Bangzheng
  • Yang, Weiguo

Abstract

Changes in employment structure are important factors in developing countries' economic development, industrial restructuring, and labor productivity increases.Based on provincial panel data of China from 2014 to 2020, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the development of the digital economy on China's employment structure. The purpose of this study is to gain a comprehensive understanding of China's employment structure adjustment trends in the digital economy era, as well as to provide a qualitative and quantitative foundation for the development of the digital economy, industrial structure optimization, and employment promotion policies. The results show that the digital economy has significantly impacted China's employment structure. At the industrial level, its influence process presents the characteristics of an "inverted U-shape," while at the trade level and skill levels, it presents the characteristics of a "positive U-shape." In the initial stage of development, the employment of the secondary sector, high-tech industry, and highly skilled workers were relatively reduced. With the advancement of digitization, the workforce has become more manufacturing-oriented, high-tech, and highly trained. Further mechanism testing shows that upgrading industrial structure and the stock of human capital has a certain degree of gain effect on the employment structure of the digital economy's development. Therefore, in the digital economy, it is vital to support, promote, and lead enterprises to accelerate the process of digital transformation, increase workers' knowledge and skills, and stimulate the dividend of human capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Bangzheng & Yang, Weiguo, 2022. "Empirical test of the impact of the digital economy on China's employment structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322002847
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322002847
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103047?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lordan, Grace & Neumark, David, 2018. "People versus machines: The impact of minimum wages on automatable jobs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 40-53.
    2. David H. Autor & David Dorn, 2013. "The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1553-1597, August.
    3. Paul Gaggl & Greg C. Wright, 2017. "A Short-Run View of What Computers Do: Evidence from a UK Tax Incentive," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 262-294, July.
    4. David H. Autor, 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
    5. Tang, Le & Sun, Shiyu, 2022. "Fiscal incentives, financial support for agriculture, and urban-rural inequality," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Hedley Rees & Anup Shah, 1986. "An empirical analysis of self‐employment in the U.K," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 95-108, January.
    7. Peter Kuhn & Hani Mansour, 2014. "Is Internet Job Search Still Ineffective?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(581), pages 1213-1233, December.
    8. Daron Acemoglu, 2015. "Localised and Biased Technologies: Atkinson and Stiglitz's New View, Induced Innovations, and Directed Technological Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(583), pages 443-463, March.
    9. Frank Levy, 2018. "Computers and populism: artificial intelligence, jobs, and politics in the near term," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(3), pages 393-417.
    10. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    11. Hong Cheng & Ruixue Jia & Dandan Li & Hongbin Li, 2019. "The Rise of Robots in China," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 71-88, Spring.
    12. Sam Youl Lee & Richard Florida & Gary Gates, 2010. "Innovation, Human Capital, and Creativity," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 13-24, January.
    13. Rees, Hedley & Shah, Anup, 1986. "An Empirical Analysis of Self-employment in the U.K," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 95-108, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Zhang, Chonghui & Chai, Binfeng & Mirza, Sultan Sikandar & Jin, Ying, 2024. "Customer-driven value creation in the digital economy: Determining the role of customer firms’ digital transformation on supplier performance in China," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Jin, Laiqun & Dai, Jiaying & Jiang, Weijie & Cao, Kairui, 2023. "Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Ma, Li & Li, Xiumin & Pan, Yu, 2024. "Employee allocation efficiency in the context of the digital economy: Evidence from “Broadband China” demonstration cities," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 735-752.
    5. Shen, Hongshan & Qin, Mengyao & Li, Tianyi & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Yang, 2024. "Digital finance and industrial structure upgrading: Evidence from Chinese counties," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    6. Jie Zhou, 2024. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Employment Scale in the Yangtze River Delta Region," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(5), pages 1-5.
    7. 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).
    8. Wu, Qingyang & Li, Shanhong, 2024. "Decarbonization by digits: How data factors drive nonlinear sustainable dynamics in manufacturing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 374(C).
    9. Ren, Jianyu & Xu, Zhitao & Hu, Mingzhi, 2023. "Digital economy and settlement intention of migrants in urban China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    10. Ting Zhu & Xiaqing Chen & Wenwen Zhang & Basil Sharp, 2023. "Analysis of the Spatial–Temporal Evolution of the Digital Economy and Its Impact on the Employment Structure in China from 2001 to 2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-18, June.
    11. Luan, Bingjiang & Zou, Hong & Huang, Junbing, 2023. "Digital divide and household energy poverty in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    12. Xin Tan & Jinfang Jiao & Ming Jiang & Ming Chen & Wenpeng Wang & Yijun Sun, 2024. "Digital Policy, Green Innovation, and Digital-Intelligent Transformation of Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-23, August.
    13. Muhammad Imran & Xiangyang Liu & Rongyu Wang & Shah Saud & Yun Zhao & Muhammad Jalal Khan, 2022. "The Influence of Digital Economy and Society Index on Sustainable Development Indicators: The Case of European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    14. Wu, Jiaxu & Yang, Yibing, 2024. "The impact of bank-enterprise distance on the digital economic value of manufacturing enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    15. Yi Xu & Jian Li & Yongcan Yan & Pengcheng Gao & Heng Xie, 2022. "Can Coordinated Development of Manufacturing and Information Communication Service Industries Boost Economic Resilience? An Empirical Study Based on China’s Provinces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    16. Yang Shen & Xiuwu Zhang, 2024. "The impact of artificial intelligence on employment: the role of virtual agglomeration," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    17. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Zhao, Shikuan & Goodell, John W. & Liu, Xiaoqian, 2024. "Digital economy policy and corporate low-carbon innovation: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Chen, Zehao & Li, Yibo & Lin, Yuyang & Pan, Jingrui, 2023. "Business environment and corporate financing decisions: From the perspective of dynamic adjustment of capital structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    19. Xinya Wang & Yizhao Chen, 2024. "More Rational, More Attractive: Industrial Structure Rationalization and Migrant Workers’ Employment Choices in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-18, March.
    20. LIU, Nian & GU, Xinhua & LEI, Chun Kwok, 2022. "The equilibrium effects of digital technology on banking, production, and employment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    21. Yang, Jinglan & Liu, Jianghuai & Yao, Zheng & Ma, Chaoqun, 2024. "Measuring digitalization capabilities using machine learning," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    22. Heng Chen & Yan Zhang, 2022. "Research on the Path of Sustainable Development of China’s Logistics Industry Driven by Capital Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-26, December.
    23. Jin, Xing & Lyu, Kangyin, 2024. "The impact of digital economy on emerging employment trends: Insights from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS)," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    24. Qi, Wenhao & Li, Biao & Liu, Qiqi & Lv, Jiaqi, 2023. "Low-skill lock-in? Financial resource mismatch and low-skilled labor demand," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    25. Zhou, Qiuyang, 2024. "Does the digital economy promote the consumption structure upgrading of urban residents? Evidence from Chinese cities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 543-551.

    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. Jingyi Qin & Qingyu Xu, 2024. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Population Dividends in China: Based on the Dual Perspective of Quantity and Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Cirillo, Valeria & Evangelista, Rinaldo & Guarascio, Dario & Sostero, Matteo, 2021. "Digitalization, routineness and employment: An exploration on Italian task-based data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    3. Xiao Ling & Zhangwei Luo & Yanchao Feng & Xun Liu & Yue Gao, 2023. "How does digital transformation relieve the employment pressure in China? Empirical evidence from the national smart city pilot policy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Anderton, Robert & Jarvis, Valerie & Labhard, Vincent & Morgan, Julian & Petroulakis, Filippos & Vivian, Lara, 2020. "Virtually everywhere? Digitalisation and the euro area and EU economies," Occasional Paper Series 244, European Central Bank.
    5. Barth, Erling & Davis, James C. & Freeman, Richard B. & McElheran, Kristina, 2023. "Twisting the demand curve: Digitalization and the older workforce," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 443-467.
    6. Maya Eden & Paul Gaggl, 2018. "On the Welfare Implications of Automation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 29, pages 15-43, July.
    7. Lu, Jing & Xiao, Qinglan & Wang, Taoxuan, 2023. "Does the digital economy generate a gender dividend for female employment? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6).
    8. Cirillo, Valeria & Divella, Marialuisa & Ferrulli, Eustachio & Greco, Lidia, 2024. "Active labor market policies in the framework of Just Transition Programs: the case of Italy, Spain, and Germany," Working Papers 79, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    9. Thomsen, Stephan L, 2018. "Die Rolle der Computerisierung und Digitalisierung für Beschäftigung und Einkommen," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-645, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    10. Wang, Haijun & Ge, Chen & Du, Xiance & Feng, Yiqiang & Wang, Weicheng, 2024. "Does digital literacy reduce intergenerational income dependency?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    11. Paul Gaggl & Greg C. Wright, 2017. "A Short-Run View of What Computers Do: Evidence from a UK Tax Incentive," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 262-294, July.
    12. Songul Tolan & Annarosa Pesole & Fernando Martinez-Plumed & Enrique Fernandez-Macias & José Hernandez-Orallo & Emilia Gomez, 2020. "Measuring the Occupational Impact of AI: Tasks, Cognitive Abilities and AI Benchmarks," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2020-02, Joint Research Centre.
    13. Cebreros Alfonso & Heffner-Rodríguez Aldo & Livas René & Puggioni Daniela, 2020. "Automation Technologies and Employment at Risk: The Case of Mexico," Working Papers 2020-04, Banco de México.
    14. Marcel Steffen Eckardt, 2022. "Minimum wages in an automating economy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(1), pages 58-91, February.
    15. Andreas Beerli & Ronald Indergand & Johannes S. Kunz, 2023. "The supply of foreign talent: how skill-biased technology drives the location choice and skills of new immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 681-718, April.
    16. Cheng, Can & Luo, Jiayu & Zhu, Chun & Zhang, Shangfeng, 2024. "Artificial intelligence and the skill premium: A numerical analysis of theoretical models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    17. Andrea Gentili & Fabiano Compagnucci & Mauro Gallegati & Enzo Valentini, 2020. "Are machines stealing our jobs?," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 13(1), pages 153-173.
    18. Lihua Zhang & Tian Gan & Jiachen Fan, 2023. "Do industrial robots affect the labour market? Evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 787-817, July.
    19. Naude, Wim, 2019. "The race against the robots and the fallacy of the giant cheesecake: Immediate and imagined impacts of artificial intelligence," MERIT Working Papers 2019-005, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    20. Fan, Haichao & Hu, Yichuan & Tang, Lixin, 2021. "Labor costs and the adoption of robots in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 608-631.

    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:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322002847. 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.