Tackling financialization amidst rising labor cost in China

Abstract

Suppressing corporate financialization exacerbated by rising labor costs is an important micro-level issue for revitalizing the manufacturing industry. This research investigates the interaction mechanism among labor costs and financialization, using panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2022 in the context of the disappearance of the demographic dividend. The results of the moderated mediation model show that rising labor costs worsen financialization by reducing corporate profitability and increase financialization through negative earnings manipulation, whereas digitization suppresses both the direct and indirect effect of labor costs. Therefore, measures should be taken to enhance the profitability and accounting transparency of companies undergoing the process of accelerating digitization.

Keywords

• JEL
• O30
• 032
• J22