Abstract: In recent years, the State Council has issued a series of guidelines on building a business environment, aiming to help enterprises tide over difficulties, revitalize their vitality, and promote high-quality economic development. However, while making the “cake” bigger, our country is faced with the problem of how to distribute the “cake” reasonably. Since the residents' income acquisition is basically completed in the initial distribution stage, the fair and reasonable salary contract of enterprises is of great significance for the realization of common prosperity. So, by reducing the burden on the production and operation of market players, can the construction of business environment optimize the enterprise salary contract and promote the fairness of internal income distribution? This issue has not received the attention it deserves.
This paper takes China's A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020 as research samples to empirically test the governance effect of business environment on enterprises' compensation contract optimization. It is found that an improved business environment can optimize executive compensation contracts and narrow the pay gap within enterprises. Further analysis shows that the reduction of institutional transaction costs, the increase of information transparency and the alleviation of agency problems in a good business environment are the mechanisms through which the pay gap is rationalized. The specific path to achieve this is that enterprises can effectively control the growth rate of executive compensation and reduce the stickiness of executive compensation. The cross-sectional results show that in private enterprises and the companies which with low quality of internal control and strong motivation of executive compensation manipulation, the optimization effect of business environment construction on enterprise compensation contract is more significant. In addition, the improvement of the regional business environment can mitigate the negative impact of the widening pay gap between executives and employees, and improve the productivity and enterprise value of enterprises in the jurisdiction. The conclusions of this paper provide empirical evidence for the interpretation of the institutional dividend of the micro-governance effect of business environment construction and the realization of common prosperity.
Common prosperity is an inevitable requirement for China's socialism to move towards high-quality development. First of all, under the goal of common prosperity, local governments should adhere to the implementation of business environment innovation pilot work and promote the construction of a first-class business environment. Secondly, enterprises themselves should establish a scientific system of power checks and balances, and creditors and regulators should play an external supervisory role in abnormal changes in executive compensation. Finally, when the improvement of the business environment reduces the operating burden of market players, enterprises, as the key players of initial income distribution, should pay attention to the fairness of internal income distribution and promote their sustainable and healthy development with the optimization of salary contracts.

Key words: Business Environment, Compensation Contract Optimization, Common Prosperity, High-quality Development

摘要： 共同富裕背景下,营商环境建设能够破除企业生产经营壁垒,降低高管努力的不可观测性,实现薪酬契约优化。本文以2008—2020 年中国A股上市公司为研究样本,检验营商环境对企业内部薪酬差距的治理效应。研究发现,营商环境改善能够优化企业薪酬契约,缩小内部薪酬差距。良好营商环境下制度性交易成本降低、信息透明度增加和代理问题缓解是薪酬差距趋于合理的作用机制;具体实现路径在于企业能够有效控制高管薪酬增速、降低高管薪酬粘性。进一步分析表明,上述治理效应在内部控制质量较低、高管薪酬操纵动机较强和民营企业中更为显著。此外,营商环境改善能够缓解薪酬差距扩大带来的负面影响,提高企业生产效率和企业价值。研究结论为我国营商环境建设发挥微观治理效应、助力共同富裕实现提供了政策参考。

关键词: 营商环境, 薪酬契约优化, 共同富裕, 高质量发展