Minimum Wage and Corporate Investment: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in China
利用中国制造业企业普查数据，研究发现最低工资政策促使企业增加资本投资，尤其对劳动密集型、技术改进空间大且难以转嫁成本的企业影响更显著。
Abstract This article studies how minimum-wage policies affect capital investment using the industrial census of manufacturing firms in China, where minimum-wage policies vary across counties. Exploiting discontinuities in minimum-wage policy at county borders, we find that minimum wages increase capital investment. The investment response to minimum wages is stronger for firms that are labor intensive, that have more room for technological improvement, and that cannot sufficiently pass on labor costs to consumers. A natural experiment based on county jurisdictional changes further assures the causal relationship.