Abstract This paper takes the non-financial listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen A shares in China from 2010 to 2020 as a sample to explore the impact of social trust on the efficiency of labor investment. Research shows that social trust can improve the efficiency of labor investment in enterprises. By replacing core variables, changing samples and using instrumental variable method, PSM matching samples, two-stage residual regression and other robust and endogenous tests, the conclusion remains unchanged. Mechanism analysis shows that alleviating agency conflicts and improving information transparency are the ways for social trust to improve the efficiency of labor investment. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the promoting effect of social trust on the efficiency of labor investment is more significant in the samples of excessive labor investment, state-owned enterprises, high labor intensity and poor legal environment. Thus it can be seen that the internal and external environment of the enterprise will affect the effect of social trust to improve the efficiency of labor investment. The study not only expands the research on the economic consequences of social trust and the influencing factors of labor investment efficiency, but also provides reference for cultivating the cultural atmosphere of social trust and optimizing labor investment decision-making.
2023, Vol. 40 
