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Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
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Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395

International
International Conference
Conference on
on Identification,
Identification, Information and
Information and Knowledge
Knowledge in
in the
the internet
internet of
of Things,
Things,
2020
2020

Research
Research on
on Total
Total Factor
Factor Productivity
Productivity Measurement
Measurement and
and
Influencing Factors of Digital Economy Enterprises
Influencing Factors of Digital Economy Enterprises
Jinfang
Jinfang Tian
Tiana,Yiran
a
,Yiran Liu
Liua, *
a,
*
a
School
of Statistics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
School of Statistics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
a

Abstract
Abstract
Digital economy becomes the main driving force of the future economy. However, the existing literatures on digital economy
Digital economy becomes the main driving force of the future economy. However, the existing literatures on digital economy
mainly focuses on the measurement of the overall development level and its impact, and lacks the discussion of digital economy
mainly focuses on the measurement of the overall development level and its impact, and lacks the discussion of digital economy
from the perspective of enterprises. In this paper, we use LP semi-parametric method and ACF method to measure the total factor
from the perspective of enterprises. In this paper, we use LP semi-parametric method and ACF method to measure the total factor
productivity of China's listed digital economy enterprises from 2013 to 2018, and construct multiple regression model to explore
productivity of China's listed digital economy enterprises from 2013 to 2018, and construct multiple regression model to explore
the influencing factors of total factor productivity. We find that, at the regional level, digital economy enterprises in eastern China
the influencing factors of total factor productivity. We find that, at the regional level, digital economy enterprises in eastern China
have higher total factor productivity than those in central and western China. The level of digital infrastructure has a significant
have higher total factor productivity than those in central and western China. The level of digital infrastructure has a significant
positive impact on total factor productivity. From the perspective of enterprises, capitalization degree, debt leverage, profitability,
positive impact on total factor productivity. From the perspective of enterprises, capitalization degree, debt leverage, profitability,
staff quality, management efficiency and R&D per capita have significant positive effects on total factor productivity. In addition,
staff quality, management efficiency and R&D per capita have significant positive effects on total factor productivity. In addition,
the influence of government subsidies on total factor productivity exhibits a positive "U" shape.
the influence of government subsidies on total factor productivity exhibits a positive "U" shape.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
© 2021
This The
is an Authors.
open accessPublished ELSEVIER
by Elsevier
article under B.V.B.V.
the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Identification, Information and
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of
ofthe
thescientific
scientificcommittee
committeeofofthe
theInternational Conference
International Conferenceonon
Identification, Information
Identification, andand
Information
Knowledge in the internet of Things, 2020
Knowledge in the internet of Things, 20202020.
Keywords: Digital economy enterprise; Total factor productivity; Influencing factors
Keywords: Digital economy enterprise; Total factor productivity; Influencing factors

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
At present, the digital technology is widely used in modern economic activities, improving economic efficiency
At present, the digital technology is widely used in modern economic activities, improving economic efficiency
and accelerating the transformation of economic structure. It is becoming an important driving force for the recovery
and accelerating the transformation of economic structure. It is becoming an important driving force for the recovery

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15665781006.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15665781006.
E-mail address: lyrjk0214@126.com
E-mail address: lyrjk0214@126.com
1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Identification, Information and Knowledge in the
Peer-review under responsibility
internet of Things, 2020 of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Identification, Information and Knowledge in the
internet of Things, 2020
1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Identification, Information and
Knowledge in the internet of Things, 2020.
10.1016/j.procs.2021.04.077
 Jinfang Tian et al. / Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395 391
2 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

of the global economy. Many countries put the digital economy on the agenda of important development strategies.
For example, in 2018, the U.S. government has promulgated national strategic plans such as the National Network
Strategy, clarifying its vision for the future development of the digital economy [1]. According to the "White Paper
on China's Digital Economy Development and Employment (2019)" by China Academy of Information and
Communications Technology, China's digital economy has exceeded 31 trillion yuan, accounting for 34.8% of GDP[2].
The digital economy has become an important part of China's industry, and the importance of it is beyond doubt.
However, the existing literatures on digital economy focuses on the perspective of aggregate amount and impact
effects. From the perspective of aggregate amount, most of the literatures focuses on measuring or comparing the
development level of digital economy between countries and regions or studying its development strategy [3][4][5].
From the perspective of impact effects, literatures focus on exploring the impact of the development of digital
economy on a certain industry or a certain aspect of economic society [6][7]. From the perspective of enterprises,
however, research on the development of digital economy enterprises is insufficient.
In addition, relying on low-cost advantages of labor, capital, natural resources and other factors, China has achieved
rapid economic growth since the reform and openness. With the disappearance of "demographic dividend", the decline
of savings rate, the limited availability of natural resources, the rising cost of labor and capital, the economic growth
mode must transform from relying on factor input to relying on the increase of total factor productivity (TFP) [8].
Therefore, this paper takes digital economy enterprises as the research object, uses Levinsohn and Petrin (LP) semi
parametric method, Ackerberg et al. (ACF) method, to measure the total factor productivity, and establishes a multiple
regression model to examine the impact of multiple factors on the total factor productivity of digital economy
enterprises [9][10][11]. This paper aims to supplement the research on the development of digital economy from the
perspective of micro enterprises, and promote the improvement of total factor productivity of digital economy
enterprises.

2. Screening of digital economy enterprises

The selection of digital economy enterprises in this paper is divided into three steps:
First, select industry division criteria for listed enterprises. This paper adopts the "CITIC Securities Industry
Classification Standard Version 2.0" as the industry classification standard for listed enterprises to facilitate the
selection of digital economy enterprises. Second, select digital economy industry from "CITIC Securities Industry
Classification Standard Version 2.0".This paper uses the definition of the digital economy at the G20 Hangzhou
Summit as the principle of division, that is, the digital economy is "an economic activity in which digital knowledge
and information are used as production factors, modern networks are used as carriers, and information and
communication technology is used as an important driving force for efficiency improvement and structural
optimization". The classification results are shown in Table 1. Third, determine digital economy enterprises. After
determining the digital economy industry, we select the listed enterprises included in the digital economy industry,
669 enterprises in total. We exclude 54 Enterprises that have undergone significant industry changes from 2013 to
2018 and the range of changes is beyond the digital economy industry classified in this paper. Therefore, the original
sample of this paper is 615 digital economy enterprises.

Table 1. The definition of digital economy industry and the corresponding number of digital economy enterprises.
Number of Number of
Digital Economy Industry Digital Economy Industry
Enterprises Enterprises
Industrial Robot and Industrial Control System 12 Network Connection and Tower Installation 21
Service Robot 3 System Device 9
Education Informatization and Online Education 5 Cable 10
Network Credit 0 Value-added Services 11
Network Coverage Optimization and Operation and
Digital Finance Services 1 7
Maintenance
Network planning and design and engineering
E-commerce and Services 5 8
construction
Integrated Circuit 32 General-purpose Computer 22
Discrete Device 8 Special-purpose Computer 49
Semiconductor Materials 8 Basic Software and Management Office Software 12
392 Jinfang Tian et al. / Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 3

Semiconductor Device 5 Industry Application Software 129

PCB 24 Emerging Computer Software 2
Passive Component 12 Cloud Infrastructure Services 7
Security and Protection 7 Cloud Platform Services 0
LED 21 Cloud Software Services 3
Face-plate 7 Consultation Implementation and Other Services 7
Display Component 15 Industrial Internet Information Service 2
Consumer Electronics Component 65 Industrial Internet Platform Service 2
Consumer Electronics Device 8 Comprehensive Industrial Internet Service 3
Other Electronics Components 30 Radio and Television 12
Telecom Operation 3 Internet Advertising Marketing 21
Power Plant 0 Information Search and Aggregation 8
Other Communication Device 15 Social and Interactive Media 0
Communication Terminal and Accessories 33 Internet Video and Audio 5

3. Total factor productivity calculation

3.1. Further sample selection and model

This paper uses the 615 listed enterprises identified in Section 2 as digital economy enterprises, and selects data
from 2013 to 2018. Due to the lack of data in some enterprises, we eliminated those enterprises. The final overall
sample is 215 A-share listed enterprises from 2013 to 2018, with 1290 sample observations, which are balanced panel
data. This section uses the C-D production function as the measurement basis. After taking the logarithm of both sides
of the equation, the model becomes:

ln Y it =  ln K it +  ln L it +  it (1)

The residual item contains information in the logarithmic form of the total factor productivity of an enterprise, so
the total factor productivity can be expressed as follows:

ln TFP =ln Y −  ln K −  ln L (2)

Among them, Y it represents the added value of enterprise i in period t. Since enterprises do not disclosed the added
value data, we deduce it using the income method. The enterprise added value = depreciation of fixed assets +
remuneration of workers + net production tax + operating surplus. K it represents the capital investment of the
enterprise, measured by the net value of fixed assets. L it represents the labor input of the enterprise, represented by
the total number of employees of the enterprise. This paper uses OLS method, Fixed effect method, LP method and
ACF method to calculate TFP.

3.2. TFP calculation results

Table 2 is the estimation results of the four models. In addition, in the actual estimation process, we control the
factors such as region, time and ownership.

Table 2. Model estimation results of four methods.

OLS FE LP ACF
lnK 0.2244*** 0.0636* 0.2340*** 0.2340***
lnL 0.6414*** 0.6533*** 0.3604*** 0.6510***
N 1290 1290 1290 1290

In this paper, *** represents the significance level of 1%, ** represents the significance level of 5%, and *
represents the significance level of 10%. Compared with the traditional OLS method, the difference between the
capital elasticity coefficient and the labor elasticity coefficient calculated by the fixed effect model is greater,
 Jinfang Tian et al. / Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395 393
4 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

indicating that the method does not overcome the simultaneity problem in the traditional C-D production function
estimation. The capital input coefficient estimated by ACF method is higher than that estimated by OLS method, and
the proportion of capital input coefficient in the sum of capital and labor input increases. The coefficient of capital
input in C-D production function estimated by LP semi parametric method is higher than that estimated by traditional
C-D production function method, while the coefficient of labor input factor estimated by LP method is lower than that
estimated by traditional C-D production function method. This result is the same as that estimated by Levinsohn and
Petrin, which shows that the LP method can effectively deal with the bias problem caused by selectivity and attrition
bias, and the endogenous problem caused by the mutual determination deviation of sample data. Through comparison,
we find that the LP semi parametric method obtains relatively good estimation results, so in the following we mainly
take the estimation results of LP method as the analysis basis.

3.3. Descriptive statistics

This paper analyzes the total factor productivity level of digital economy enterprises at the overall level, regional
level and ownership level by using added value as the weight. Table 3 shows the total factor productivity level. It can
be seen that the total factor productivity of digital economy enterprises has basically shown an upward trend from
2013 to 2018. It can be found that the absolute level of TFP in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and
western regions every year. The productivity level of state-owned digital economy enterprises is higher than that of
non-state-owned enterprises.

Table 3. Value and growth rate of total factor productivity in each year.
Year Full sample State-owned Non-state East Central and Western
2013 5.3754 5.6581 5.1870 5.3854 5.2947
2014 5.4882 5.7235 5.3324 5.4975 5.4124
2015 5.5810 5.8430 5.4051 5.5967 5.4451
Level value
2016 5.5941 5.8438 5.4350 5.6011 5.5307
2017 5.7672 5.9835 5.6320 5.7787 5.6546
2018 5.7673 5.9310 5.6607 5.7876 5.5584

4. Analysis of TFP influencing factors

4.1. Factor selection

We screen the influencing factors of TFP from the perspective of regions and enterprises. Table 4 summarizes the
proxy variables for these factors.

Table 4. Factor descriptions.

Factors Measures
Gdp Logarithm of city GDP
Regional level Digital Logarithm of the number of provincial internet broadband access ports
Open City total import and export/city GDP
Size The logarithm of the number of employees at the end of the year
Age Number of years since operated
Capital Total assets/Number of employees
Debt Total liability/ Total assets
Profit Operating profit/Operating income
Staff employees with bachelor degree and above/Total employees
Enterprise
Concen Proportion of the largest shareholder
level
Excit Executive shareholding/Total equity
Manage Operating profit/Management costs
RD R&D investment per capita
Subsidy Government subsidy/Operating income
Exit 1: Have overseas income;0: otherwise
State 1: State-owned enterprise;0: otherwise
394 Jinfang Tian et al. / Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 5

4.2. Regression modelling

We establish the following basic economic model of influencing factors of productivity:

  X it +  it
ln TFP it =+
'
(3)

Among them, the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of total factor productivity calculated by the i-th
enterprise in t period. X it' is the independent variable vector influencing productivity of the i-th enterprise in t period.
And  it is the disturbance term.

4.3. Regression results of influencing factors

Firstly, this paper conducts regression analysis on regional variables and internal influencing factors of enterprises
in column (1). Among the regional factors, only the level of digital infrastructure has a significant positive impact on
the productivity of digital economy enterprises. Enterprise size, degree of capitalization, debt leverage and profitability
have a positive and significant impact on the TFP of digital economy enterprises. Enterprise age has no significant
impact on productivity. The staff quality, management efficiency and R&D per capita have a positive impact on the
total factor productivity of digital economy enterprises. Ownership concentration, effective incentive to managers,
government subsidy rate and enterprise export have no significant impact on the total factor productivity of digital
economy enterprises. In order to further explore the impact of government subsidies on the total factor productivity
of digital economy enterprises, the square term of government subsidy rate is further introduced in column (2). At this
time, the coefficient of government subsidy rate is negative, and the square coefficient of government subsidy rate is
positive, and both are significant, indicating that the influence of government subsidies on total factor productivity of
digital economy enterprises is "U"-shaped.
We introduce the dummy variable of enterprise ownership in column (3). The regression results show that
enterprise ownership has a significant positive impact on enterprises. The total factor productivity of state-owned
enterprises is higher than that of non-state-owned enterprises. Although many literatures show that the productivity
of state-owned enterprises is lower than that of private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, many scholars have
found that the productivity of state-owned enterprises is higher than that of non-state-owned enterprises through
empirical research. Ma found that the total factor productivity of state-owned enterprises is significantly higher than
that of foreign-funded enterprises and industry average [12]. The total factor productivity of state-owned enterprises
has absolute advantage, mainly due to technological progress. This indicates that China's state-owned enterprise
reform has made important achievements.

Table 5. Regression results of influencing factors.

Dependent variable lnTFP-LP
Factors (1) (2) (3)
Gdp -0.0890 -0.0823 -0.0067
Digital 0.1155** 0.1200** 0.0568
Open -0.0288 -0.0276 -0.0248
Size 0.2395*** 0.2388*** 0.3208***
Age 0.0229 0.0202 0.0020
Capital 9.35e-08*** 9.57e-08*** 1.11e-07***
Debt 0.6554*** 0.6280*** 0.5274***
Profit 3.9019*** 3.8872*** 3.6411***
Staff 0.5058*** 0.5160*** 0.5099***
Concen -0.0479 0.0068 0.3172**
Excit -0.0029 0.0057 -0.0399
Manage 0.1842*** 0.1840*** 0.2005***
RD 0.0001*** 0.0001*** 0.0001***
Subsidy -0.6929 -5.8432*** -7.4922***
Exit -0.0606 -0.0609 -0.0280
Subsidy2 55.7962*** 66.5832***
 Jinfang Tian et al. / Procedia Computer Science 187 (2021) 390–395 395
6 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

State 0.1762***
Constant -0.1232 -0.1747 -0.2291
Hausman Test FE FE -
Year fixed effect Yes Yes Yes
R2 0.6412 0.6449 0.7042
P-value 0.0000*** 0.0000*** 0.0000***

In order to verify the conclusion of this paper, we use the total factor productivity calculated by ACF method as
the dependent variable and perform the regression again with the same independent variables and model as the main
test in the previous section. The regression results are basically consistent with the main test, which proves the stability
of the regression results of the main test.

5. Conclusions

Taking China's listed digital economy enterprises as the research object from 2013 to 2018, we find that TFP
measured by LP method shows an upward trend from 2013 to 2018. The TFP of digital economy enterprises in the
eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. The TFP of state-owned digital economy
enterprises is higher than that of non-state-owned digital economy enterprises. We can see that reform of state-owned
enterprises has made important achievements.
In addition, this paper also performs regression analysis on the influencing factors of TFP of digital economy
enterprises. The regression results show that the level of digital infrastructure has a significant positive impact on TFP
of digital economy enterprises in the regional level. The results show that the degree of capitalization, debt leverage,
profitability, staff quality, management efficiency and R&D per capita have significant positive effects on TFP of
digital economy enterprises. Enterprise size, equity concentration and enterprise ownership also have positive effects.
Enterprise age, effective incentive to managers and export behaviour have no influence on digital economy enterprises.
And the influence of government subsidies on TFP of digital economy enterprises exhibits positive "U" type.

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