Can employee pension insurance coverage reduce corporate operational risk? From the perspective of financing costs

Using data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023, this study employs a two-way fixed effects model, instrumental variable approach, lagged variable regression, propensity score matching (PSM), and alternative variable substitution to empirically examine the impact of employee pension insurance coverage on corporate operational risk and its underlying mechanism. The results show that employee pension insurance coverage can significantly reduce business operational risks. This conclusion holds even after addressing endogeneity and performing multiple robustness tests. Further analysis reveals that financing costs have a positive moderating effect, and the degree of marketization in the region strengthens this impact. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this effect is more pronounced in labor-intensive industries, capital-intensive industries, and regions with low social trust. From the theoretical perspectives of risk-sharing and signaling, this study reveals the micro-level risk-mitigation function of social insurance coverage, extends the research boundaries of the economic consequences of pension insurance, and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for improving the multi-tiered social security system and enhancing corporate resilience.