Research on the Impact of Data Factor Input on the Labor Income Share of Enterprises: Based on the Perspective of Factor Input

With the rapid development of the digital economy, data elements have become a core factor of productive in the digital economy era. Investigating how enterprise investment in data elements improves income distribution is highly significant for both theory and policy-making in achieving common prosperity and high-quality development. Starting from the perspective of factor input, this study uses data from listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets to study the impact of enterprise data investment on the labor income share and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that: Firstly, the input of enterprise data elements can significantly increase the labor income share, and this result still holds after robustness tests. Secondly, the positive impact of data element input on the labor income share is more pronounced in high-tech and state-owned enterprises. Finally, data elements affect the labor income share through labor-capital structure and cost control mechanisms. The labor-capital structure mechanism significantly mitigates the positive effect of data elements on the labor income share across all enterprise types. In contrast, the cost control mechanism strengthens this positive effect in non-state-owned and non-high-tech enterprises.