IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v54y2022i46p5320-5334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of social security contributions on corporate innovation: evidence from the contribution collection reform in China

Author

Listed:
  • Chao Zhang
  • Lifang Chen
  • Huasheng Song

Abstract

This paper identifies a positive causal effect of social security contributions on corporate innovation by exploiting the staggered passage of social contributions collection reforms in China. The collection of social security contributions was switched from social security institutions to tax authorities in Chinese provinces that have adopted collection reforms, which reduced employer-borne contributions. Our results indicate that a decrease in employer social security contributions induces an increase in the demand for labor by making labor less costly, subsequently discouraging labor-saving innovation. Moreover, the response of the innovation to the reforms is stronger for labor-intensive firms and non-state-owned enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Chao Zhang & Lifang Chen & Huasheng Song, 2022. "The impact of social security contributions on corporate innovation: evidence from the contribution collection reform in China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(46), pages 5320-5334, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:54:y:2022:i:46:p:5320-5334
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2022.2042480
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2022.2042480
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2022.2042480?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:54:y:2022:i:46:p:5320-5334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.