Antitrust And Firm’s Total Factor Productivity

Since the beginning of China’s economic reform,the planned economy has been transformed into a market economy,and various acts of restricting competition have not only harmed the interests of enterprises and consumers,but also hindered the development of the national economy and technology,so the enactment of the Anti-Monopoly Law is a matter of urgency.The Anti-monopoly Law has been controversial and worrisome for scholars during its formulation and after its implementation.Whether it has played a positive role is still a question worth exploring.As China’s economic growth has entered a new normal,the country’s economy is transitioning from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development,and total factor productivity is essentially an important criterion reflecting the quality of micro and macroeconomic development.It is of strong practical significance to study the impact of the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law on the total factor productivity of enterprises.This paper constructs a double difference model with the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment,selects A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen in China as the research object,and uses a combination of normative and empirical research to investigate the impact of the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law on the total factor productivity of monopolistic firms.And further,the differences of policy effects between state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises and between regions with high and low levels of rule of law are examined by means of group tests.In addition,it was examined from the perspective of principal-agent problem.Finally,the mechanism of its effect is examined.The empirical results show that after the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law,the total factor productivity of enterprises with high monopoly power significantly decreases compared to those with low monopoly power,and the total factor productivity difference between monopolies and non-monopolies decreases.The results of the subgroup tests indicate that the reduction of total factor productivity of monopolies by the implementation of the Anti-monopoly Law is more significant among state-owned enterprises and regions with high rule of law level.The results of the mechanism test indicate that the monopoly power of monopolies is significantly reduced after the implementation of the Antimonopoly Law,and the ability to obtain excess profits decreases,while due to the existence of the principal-agent problem,the operators of enterprises choose to reduce the investment in the innovation activities of enterprises for the short-term business performance of enterprises,which in turn reduces the total factor productivity of enterprises.In order to determine whether the main findings of this paper are robust,this paper has conducted robustness tests,and proved that the main findings of this paper are robust.This paper examines the relationship between the implementation of the Antimonopoly Law and the total factor productivity of enterprises,and explores the impact of the implementation of the Antimonopoly Law on the total factor productivity of enterprises using a double difference model,which enriches the research related to the Antimonopoly Law and the total factor productivity of enterprises,expands the research perspective,and also provides relevant incremental evidence on the factors influencing the total factor productivity of enterprises in China.