An Empirical Study on the Impact of CEO Education on Corporate Total Factor Productivity in the Context of Digital Economy

Abstract

In this paper, 11,913 Chinese firms from 2012 to 2020 are selected as sample data for empirical tests. The results show a positive correlation between the CEO's education level and the firm's total factor productivity. CEO education can enhance firms' total factor productivity by improving corporate governance, increasing firms' investment efficiency, and promoting firms' innovation. In addition, CEO education has a more positive effect on firms' total factor productivity in the group of firms with low firm competition. There is a more positive impact on firm total factor productivity in the group of firms with transactional institutional investors. Therefore, enterprises should pay more attention to the investment in top management education, increase the training of managers, and smooth the channel of academic upgrade, so as to improve the level of corporate governance, enhance the efficiency of corporate investment, promote corporate innovation, and ensure the competitiveness of enterprises in the market.