China’s Digital Economy and Enterprise Labor Demand: The Mediating Effects of Green Technology Innovation

Zhaoqing Sun, Jianxu Liu and Roengchai Tansuchat ()
Additional contact information
Zhaoqing Sun: School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Jianxu Liu: School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Roengchai Tansuchat: Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-24

Abstract: In the context of the new revolution of science and technology, the digital economy not only exerts a significant and profound impact on the scale of enterprise labor demand, but also increasingly becomes a new engine driving green technology innovation in companies. In this paper, we use the micropanel data of Chinese A-share-listed companies from 2011 to 2020 to assess the impact of the digital economy on the scale of enterprise labor demand and the role played by green technology innovation within it. The study finds that: (1) the digital economy significantly expands the labor demand of enterprises, with a more pronounced expansion effect observed at the lower and higher quantiles of the labor demand scale. (2) Green technology innovation can exert a significant intermediary effect between the digital economy and the scale of enterprise labor demand. (3) There is significant heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on the labor demand of enterprises and the mediating effect of green technology innovation. the expansion effect of the digital economy on the scale of labor demand is more pronounced in enterprises located in the western region and characterized by rapid industry technological changes in small-to-medium-sized companies, while the mediating effect of green technology innovation is more pronounced in enterprises located in the eastern region, characterized by slow industry technological changes in large-sized companies. (4) Among the segmented indicators of the digital economy, cloud computing technology, big data technology, and digital technology applications significantly expand the scale of enterprise labor demand. The empirical results of this paper have important theoretical and policy implications for understanding the role of the digital economy in promoting labor force employment and achieving green sustainable development.

Keywords: digital economy; labor demand; green innovation; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11682/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11682/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11682-:d:1205270

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().