Abstract:

In the new stage of development， the improvement of firm’s total factor productivity plays a key role in the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. In the context of China’s economic transition system， some firms will obtain production factors by establishing political affiliation with the government. Is there a political resource curse for firm’s productivity improvement？ Can the business environment have an effect of political affiliation on firm’s productivity？ A deep understanding of the above mechanism is important for China to promote the high-quality economic development.Using the panel data of Chinese industrial firms， fixed-effects model and threshold regression model， the relationship between political affiliation and firm’s total factor productivity is analyzed. Then whether business environment can break the political resource curse and promote the improvement of firm’s total factor productivity is studied. The results show that the political affiliation has a restraining effect on the firm’s total factor productivity and business environment can alleviate the adverse effect of the political affiliation on the improvement of firm’s total factor productivity. Thus the business environment can break the political resource curse. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the political affiliation has a restraining effect on the improvement of firm’s total factor productivity for state-owned enterprises， private enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises as well as for low-technology， medium-technology and high-technology manufacturing industry. What’s more， the positive moderating effect of business environment is better reflected in private enterprises， high-technology manufacturing industries and enterprises in eastern region of China.Thus the conclusion provides a meaningful reference for government to continuously optimize the business environment， eliminate institutional obstacles and promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

Key words: business environment, political affiliation, total factor productivity, political resource curse