The general secretary stressed the need to "build a digital economy with data as the key element". Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's digital economy has developed rapidly with the help of the advantages of ultra-large-scale market, massive data scale, rich application scenarios and leading digital infrastructure, and the current proportion of digital economy in GDP has exceeded 40%. On the basis of this practice, combined with the scientific judgment of the future trend of productivity change, China attaches great importance to data-driven productivity reform, accelerates the construction of a data-based system that is conducive to the release of data productivity, and lists data as the fifth factor of production after land, labor, capital and technology.
Treating data as a new type of factor of production does not simply add an element variable in parallel with other factors of production to the production function, nor does it simply regard data as a labor material and labor object. The theory of data factors of production contains profound theoretical logic and major theoretical propositions, which will have a profound impact on the innovation and development of economic theory, and is of great significance for accelerating the construction of China's independent economic knowledge system.
The theoretical innovation contained in the theory of data factors of production itself.
In the history of economic theory, not all economic resources can be refined, abstracted and summarized into factors of production, and the expansion of the connotation and extension of factors of production is usually accompanied by the development of economic theories. Data is defined as a factor of production, which in itself reflects an important theoretical innovation:
The first is the theoretical innovation in the research of the value of data elements. Data not only plays an independent role in the production process as a factor of production, but also changes the value of other factors of production by reducing information asymmetry and optimizing decision-making, showing a multiplier effect. By changing the connection mode and efficiency between people, people and things, and things and things, data will also drive the recombination of other factors of production, which in turn will change the production function and accelerate technological innovation. Only by deeply understanding the creation and realization of the value of data elements can we accurately evaluate the value of data, and there is a theoretical basis for data assets to be included in the table.
The second is the theoretical innovation in the distribution of data elements. Different from traditional factors of production, data not only directly contributes to the production and transaction process, but also indirectly contributes to the value enhancement of other factors of production and the promotion of the transformation of production functions, and the process of data generation, processing and operation involves many participants, which leads to the difference between the income distribution mechanism of data and traditional factors, and there is a large space for theoretical innovation. Different from the diminishing marginal returns of traditional factors, data elements exhibit the characteristics of increasing marginal returns, which will overwrite the traditional production function based on constant and decreasing marginal returns. Data elements also have the characteristics of increasing returns to scale, and the autonomous evolution of machine learning models may lead to endogenous volatility and instability in economic activities, which poses severe challenges to the traditional economic growth theory and macroeconomic control theory, and forms a space for theoretical innovation.
The theory of data factors of production has deepened the theoretical research on new qualitative productivity.
Both classical economics and neoclassical economics equate the form of value distribution with the source of value creation. Marx criticized this theory of factors of production that concealed the relations of production, adhered to the labor theory of value, abstracted the production process into the labor process, and creatively proposed the three elements of the productive forces, namely, laborers, labor materials, and labor objects. The three factors of productivity not only include all kinds of factors of production that play an important role in the production process, but also emphasize that living labor is the only source of value. Marx's theory of productive forces goes beyond the theory of factors of production based on the capitalist mode of production in Western economics, and scientifically explains the decisive force of social development and the source of social value in different periods of human development. Marx pointed out that "the productive forces, that is, the development of the productive capacity and its factors of production", the development of the factors of production will promote the development of the productive forces.
** The general secretary creatively put forward the important concept of "new quality productive forces" at the symposium on promoting the comprehensive revitalization of Northeast China in the new era, which is a major innovation and development of the Marxist theory of productive forces. Data is the key factor in the formation of new qualitative productivity, and the theory of data production factors provides important support for the innovation and development of new qualitative productivity theory. First of all, the new quality of the productive forces includes new factors of production, and the in-depth study of the new factors of production is helpful to understand the underlying logic of the formation and development of the new quality of the forces more scientifically. Secondly, data and its algorithms can have a systematic impact on the formation and development of new quality productivity through the quality improvement and optimal combination of the three factors of productivity, such as laborers, labor materials, and labor objects, the value enhancement of production factors, the innovation of allocation mode, and the acceleration of technological change, and the in-depth study of the influence mechanism and realization path can further promote the theoretical development of new quality productivity.
The theory of data factors of production has broadened the research horizon of institutional economics.
Compared with traditional factors of production, data has the characteristics of non-exclusivity, non-competition, easy replication, non-consumption, etc., and the generation, processing, use and operation of data are scattered among many economic subjects, and the definition of data rights and its governance have become the focus and difficulty of the theoretical community.
The research on data rights confirmation will promote the development of property rights economics. Different from traditional factors of production, there is no broad consensus in the academic community on whether data needs to be confirmed. In many cases, the original data is naturally generated, and there is no consensus on whether the original data owner can own the original data. Since the original data has no labor added value, and the data can be reused without exhaustion, and will not produce the "tragedy of the commons", many scholars advocate diluting the ownership of the original data, which is more conducive to the circulation and use of data. The "Opinions of the Communist Party of China on Building a Data Basic System to Better Play the Role of Data Elements" adopts this line of thinking, emphasizing the exploration of a structural separation system of data property rights, and establishing a separate property rights operation mechanism for data resource holdings, data processing and use rights, and data product management rights. From data resources to data processing to data products, covering the labor production process and transaction process of data, it is also the process of data value creation and value realization. In addition, diluting data ownership does not mean avoiding the issue of ownership, and it is still necessary to further promote the research on the theory of data ownership confirmation on the basis of practical exploration, and accelerate the construction of the theory of data property rights system with Chinese characteristics.
The research on data governance will promote theoretical innovation in the fields of corporate governance, ** governance and market governance. For personal data, enterprise data and public data, under the constraints of protecting personal privacy, anti-data monopoly and unfair competition, and safeguarding public safety, how to build a governance system to promote the efficient and orderly circulation and use of data still needs more in-depth practical exploration and theoretical research. The application of big data and its algorithms has changed the boundaries of enterprises, enterprises and markets, and suppliers and demanders, which have posed new challenges to traditional governance theories, and it is necessary to further accelerate theoretical research in related fields and construct data governance theories with Chinese characteristics.
Author: Huang Kainan, a researcher at the Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era of Shandong Province, and the deputy dean of the School of Administration of the Party School of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee
*:Light**.