Economic Policy Uncertainty, Industrial Intelligence, and Firms’ Labour Productivity: Empirical Evidence from China

In this paper, we empirically explore the impact of uncertainty in economic policy and industrial intelligence on firms’ labor productivity, as well as the possible methods and mechanisms of influence. After theoretical inference, we employ regression models with sample data collected from A-share companies in the manufacturing industry listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2007 and 2019. We find that firms’ labor productivity experiences a significant decrease under economic policy uncertainty. However, the negative effect of economic policy uncertainty shocks on labor productivity in regions with high industrial intelligence levels is effectively mitigated. These differential changes in the impact of economic policy uncertainty shock on labor productivity between areas with high and low industrial intelligence levels are found primarily for firms in high-technology and highly specialized sectors, sectors with strong financial constraints. Besides, we perform further analysis which indicates that the upgrading of human capital operates as an essential channel for economic policy uncertainty shocks and industrial intelligence to affect firms’ labor productivity. Overall, our findings illustrate that implementing economic policies in a stable and transparent way and developing intelligent technology can improve firms’ labor productivity.