Data as a factor of production in promoting common prosperity: value implications, practical challenges and pathways

Purpose This paper aims to clarify the role of data, as a newly recognised factor of production, in advancing common prosperity. It examines the value implications of data as a factor of production, identifies the practical challenges that constrain its contribution and explores effective pathways through which data can better promote common prosperity in both material and spiritual life. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a Marxist political-economy perspective and drawing on the theory of factors of production and distribution, the paper conducts a conceptual and normative analysis organised around three dimensions: the value implications of data for common prosperity, the practical challenges involved and corresponding practical pathways. It situates the analysis within China's policy context, including the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which first recognised data as a factor of production, and supports its arguments with official statistics and industry reports on China's digital and data economy. Findings The paper finds that data as a factor of production promotes common prosperity in three ways: it fosters new quality productive forces, high-quality development and full employment, consolidating the material foundation for common prosperity; it improves the three rounds of distribution, enabling the people to share the fruits of development; and it transforms modes of production, ways of life and social governance, advancing individuals' well-rounded development. However, this role is constrained by unclear data property rights, an underdeveloped trading system and weak infrastructure that hold back data value; by data monopolies, the digital divide and inequitable returns distribution; and by the disorderly expansion of data capital, which encroaches on spiritual life and creates new forms of labour alienation. Originality/value The paper offers a systematic framework linking data as a factor of production to common prosperity across wealth creation, fair distribution and human development, rather than treating data merely as a growth engine. It reveals the tensions between data's distinctive characteristics and its distributional effects, and proposes integrated pathways: unleashing data value through better property rights, trading markets and infrastructure; advancing development with equity through anti-monopoly measures, bridging the digital divide and fair returns distribution; and upholding a people-centred orientation by regulating cyberspace and data capital and strengthening workers' agency.