Does e‐commerce infrastructure increase enterprise productivity? Evidence from China's e‐commerce demonstration city
利用中国电子商务示范城市试点作为准自然实验，研究电子商务基础设施对企业全要素生产率的影响，发现该政策通过促进技术创新和增加人力资本间接提升生产率，且对国企、高股权集中度企业及制造业等效果更显著。
Abstract This study leverages the National E‐commerce Demonstration City Pilot (NEDC) as a quasi‐natural experiment in e‐commerce infrastructure development. Utilising panel data from non‐financial firms listed on China's A‐share market from 2005 to 2022, we pioneered employ a multi‐period difference‐in‐differences (DID) approach to explore the direct and indirect effects of e‐commerce infrastructure on total factor productivity (TFP). Our findings reveal that: (1) The NEDC initiative significantly enhances firm‐level TFP. This result remains robust after addressing endogeneity issues through IV‐2SLS and propensity score matching and difference in differences methods and undergoing a series of robustness tests. (2) Channels tests indicate that the NEDC policy indirectly boosts firm TFP primarily by fostering technological innovation and augmenting human capital. (3) Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the NEDC policy effectively stimulates TFP growth in state‐owned enterprises, firms with high equity concentration, manufacturing and low‐tech industry firms. The policy's impact is more pronounced in cities with high administrative levels, in the eastern and central cities, and in cities with superior traditional infrastructure. The empirical evidence provided by this study not only supports the role of e‐commerce infrastructure in driving economic growth but also offers valuable insights for bridging the income disparity between developing and developed nations, and mitigating income inequality.