Research On The Impact Of China's Urban Employees' Basic Old-Age Insurance Contribution Rate On Corporate Innovation

Under the background of national "strategy of innovation driven development" and"tax cuts and fee reductions",it is of great practical significance to systematically analyze the economic effect of contribution rate of basic old-age insurance for urban employees on corporate innovation and its internal mechanism.China's economic development has long relied on the growth of the factor-driven model.Due to the rapid increase in labor costs,this extensive growth model has become a bottleneck.Social development needs to rely on innovation as the new engine of economic growth.And the fact that the high proportion of old-age insurance contributions based on wages is also one of the reasons why labor costs are rising year by year.In order to promote the intelligent upgrading of enterprises under the new normal of the economy,China has introduced a series of "tax reduction and fee reduction" policies aimed at reducing the tax burden of taxpayers,stabilizing and boosting the confidence of market entities,and further stimulating and releasing market vitality,thereby bring new momentum to the high-quality development of the economy.Among them,the government has carried out unprecedented reforms to the social insurance system.For example,in 2019,the statutory contribution rate and contribution base of basic old-age insurance were significantly reduced at the same time,and the tax department was responsible for the unified collection of social insurance.Basic old-age insurance is a welfare for employees,which can motivate employees to work,but at the same time it is also a labor cost,which will squeeze the profitability of enterprises.Then,will the national implementation of "reduction rate and strong collection" measures affect corporate innovation?The literature on old-age insurance and corporate innovation at home and abroad is extremely rich,but the literature on the relationship between the two is still insufficient.The research in this article will supplement and improve in this regard,in order to provide relevant empirical evidence for the formulation of China's old-age insurance statutory contribution rate and the making of the policies on corporate innovative fiscal support.The basic old-age insurance contribution rate studied in this article refers to the unit's contribution ratio,excluding the individual's contribution ratio.The study consists of 7 chapters.In addition to the introduction of Chapter 1,Chapters 2 and 3 are the theoretical basis for the analysis and establishment of the system and the background of the system.Chapter 4 is the research on the impact of the actual old-age insurance contribution rate on corporate innovation.Chapters 5 and chapter 6 are based on the research of Chapter 4,further researching whether low-rate policies are beneficial to corporate innovation from the micro and macro perspectives.Chapter 7 summarizes the main conclusions of the study and proposes relevant policy recommendations.This article combines theoretical model analysis with quantitative research,highlighting quantitative analysis.Based on the theoretical and empirical literature of old-age insurance and labor cost,labor cost and corporate innovation,financing cost and corporate innovation,tax policy and corporate innovation,the theoretical basis for the analysis of the impact of old-age insurance contribution rate on corporate innovation and its internal mechanism is established.In quantitative analysis,panel data is used and micro data mainly adopts panel data double fixed model,propensity score matching method while macro data mainly adopts synthetic control method and double difference method.Through empirical analysis,the following conclusions are obtained:First,the actual old-age insurance contribution rate and corporate innovation present an"inverted U" nonlinear relationship with an inflection point value of 0.1947.Most samples are in the upward part of the curve,that is,increasing the actual old-age insurance contribution rate at this stage is beneficial to promoting corporate innovation investment.The mechanism effect shows that the factor substitution effect caused by the increase in the labor costs of enterprises caused by old-age insurance contributions will promote corporate innovation,but the financing cost effect will inhibit corporate innovation,and the two effects superimpose each other to produce a nonlinear relationship.Further theoretical and empirical analysis from the perspective of compliance shows that under the premise of a fixed statutory contribution rate,the more compliant the old-age insurance contribution compliance is,the higher the intensity of R&D investment,which is obvious in non-state-owned enterprises,while state-owned enterprises register a low level of relevance between the two.Second,on the whole,the low-rate policy of old-age insurance has a positive effect on the investment in corporate innovation.Specifically,compared with the high-rate group(20%),the middle-rate group(18%)failed to show an innovation promotion effect while the low-rate group(14%)has a significant innovation promotion effect.Mechanism analysis shows that the enterprise-level welfare cost savings caused by the low-rate policy can affect the R&D intensity of the enterprise from two aspects.It can be transformed into employee salaries,recruiting better R&D personnel,or transformed into corporate profits and reducing corporate financing costs.It can increase the motivation of enterprises for research and development.The efect of this mechanism exists in both the full sample and the high and low rate groups.Although the medium rate group has welfare cost savings,its wage costs are lower than the high rate group,and the profit efficiency of the company is not obvious and also the financing cost is higher than the high-rate group.The dual effect of labor cost reduction and financing cost increase makes the innovation effect of the medium-rate group compared with the high-rate group is not obvious.The heterogeneity effect also shows that the net effect of enterprises will be different due to different sectors,ownerships,and industries.Third,the reduction of the statutory old-age insurance contribution rate is conducive to the promotion of corporate innovation investment,but the intensity of the fee reduction and the intensity of innovation investment are not proportional.Taking the reduction of the contribution rates of basic old-age insurance units in Zhejiang and Shandong provinces as a"quasi-natural experiment" to carry out related research,the research shows that the fee reduction policy has a significant "promoting effect" on innovation input.This effect has a lag period of 2 to 3 years in Zhejiang Province,while Shandong Province does not have a lag effect.Although Shandong Province's old-age insurance contribution rate cuts are less aggressive than Zhejiang Provinces,the net effect of policies on the R&D expenditure intensity of enterprises is higher than that of Zhejiang Province.From a macro perspective,the fee reduction policy shows that if regions are in different economic development cycles,their net effects on corporate innovation will be heterogeneous.Based on the above research conclusions,this dissertation puts forward relevant policy recommendations in terms of contribution compliance,statutory contribution rates,and enterprise heterogeneity.The main points are:optimizing the top-level design and increasing the incentives of the system;giving preferential social insurance policies for R&D personnel of small and medium enterprises;focusing on basic education and strengthen the training of "STEM" talents;focusing on vocational training of "matching jobs" to solve the unemployment problem of skill substitution.The deficiencies of the research and future research directions are also prospected.The innovations of this article are as follows:?From a research perspective,there is no domestic research on corporate innovation from the perspective of old-age insurance contribution compliance and low-rate policies.?From the perspective of research content,micro-data research shows that the actual old-age insurance contribution rate presents an"inverted U" nonlinear relationship to the corporate innovation investment;under the premise that the statutory contribution rate is established,the more compliant the corporate contribution compliance,the more conducive to innovation investment;under the same contribution compliance,compared with the high rate(20%),the lower statutory contribution rate(14%)is conducive to corporate innovation,while the slightly lower statutory contribution rate(18%)shows no impact on the company's investment in innovation.?From the perspective of research methods,synthetic control methods are used for macro data to study the impact of fee reduction policies on corporate innovation input.