The Impact of Market-Oriented Allocation of Data Elements on Enterprises’ New Quality Productive Forces

This paper takes the quasi-natural experiment from the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone (NBDCPZ) in China as an example to examine the impact of market-oriented allocation of data elements on enhancing enterprises’ New Quality Productive Forces (NQPF). Based on panel data from China’s A-share listed enterprises on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2011 and 2022, this study employs a robust policy evaluation method, the multi-way fixed effects staggered difference-in-differences (MWFE Staggered DID) method, to analyze the impact of the NBDCPZ on NQPF comprehensively. The key findings are threefold: First, the NBDCPZ significantly boosts enterprises’ NQPF within their jurisdictions. Second, the NBDCPZ enhances NQPF by accelerating enterprise digital transformation, and the digital talent can amplify the promotional effect of the NBDCPZ on enterprise digital transformation. Third, the NQPF-enhancing effects are more pronounced for privately owned enterprises (POEs), foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), and smaller enterprises, whereas they exhibit an inhibitory impact on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and large enterprises. Fourth, the promotional effect of the NBDCPZ on enterprises’ NQPF varies across different industries. Furthermore, regional (city-level) digital infrastructure and financial development levels amplify the NQPF-enhancing effects of the NBDCPZ.