Research On The Impact Of Minimum Wage Standard On Green Total Factor Productivity

Since the implementation of the Minimum Wage Regulation in 2004,China has continuously promoted the minimum wage standard system.With the implementation of this system and the continuous increase of the minimum wage standard,the economic effect of the minimum wage standard has gradually appeared,which has aroused the attention and thinking of the majority of scholars.In recent years,the minimum wage has been continuously raised,which has increased the labor cost,thus causing the change of the relative price among factors.For the sake of maximizing profits,enterprises have to adjust the factor input decisions and use capital or technology instead of labor,thus affecting the technological progress and technical efficiency of enterprises,and finally affecting the green total factor productivity.Firstly,this paper uses the manually searched urban minimum wage standard data and China’s urban panel data to make an empirical analysis through the fixed effect model,to study the influence of the increase of minimum wage standard on green total factor productivity,and to test the robustness and endogeneity of the empirical results.Secondly,from two aspects of technological innovation and factor substitution effect,the mechanism test of the influence of the minimum wage on green total factor productivity is carried out.Finally,the sample data is subdivided according to location,city scale and city grade standard to discuss the influence degree of the minimum wage standard on the green total factor productivity of different sub-sample cities.The empirical results show that the increase of the minimum wage has a significant negative impact on China’s green total factor productivity,and this conclusion is very stable.The mechanism test shows that the minimum wage standard will restrain the growth of China’s green total factor productivity through two channels:technological innovation and factor substitution effect.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibition of minimum wage on green total factor productivity varies from region to region,city scale and city level,and the inhibition on the western region is significant.The smaller the city scale and the lower the administrative level,the greater the inhibition.According to the research conclusion,this paper puts forward four policy suggestions:First,perfect the minimum wage system and build an effective supervision system;The second is to enhance the ability of technological innovation and optimize the industrial structure;Third,implement differentiated environmental regulations to promote green economic development;The fourth is to strengthen regional linkage and optimize spatial layout.