Abstract:

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee proposed to stimulate the vitality of various market entities and establish a modern fiscal and taxation system. The fee reduction policy is one of the important initiatives in the establishment of the system, which plays an important role in economic and social development. The statutory pension contribution rate of Chinese firms, which places a certain burden on Chinese firms, was about 20% by 2019, compared to 6.2% in the U. S. It is of both theoretical and practical significance to explore whether the fee reduction policy can reduce the firms’ burden and stimulate the vitality of micro market entities. Using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 as the research samples, this paper finds that the pension contribution rate reduction policy reduces cost stickiness. Besides, the relationship between the policy and cost stickiness is more pronounced in the subsamples with higher employee intensity and lower average wage of smaller size, as well as in non-state-owned firms. This paper uses hand-collected data of statutory rates from 2010 to 2019 to conduct a large-sample empirical study on the relationship between the policy and cost stickiness. Compared to the firm-level data, the statutory rates are determined by the exogenous variable of government behavior, which helps mitigate the potential endogeneity problems.
This paper makes contributions in the following three aspects. First, it expands the research related to the economic consequences of the fee reduction policy. Quantifying the effect of the policy can examine the stage effect of the policy implementation, so that the policy can be timely evaluated and adjusted. From the perspective of cost stickiness, this paper elaborates on the impact of the policy and provides theoretical support for the government to further deepen the fee reduction reform. The findings support the role played by the policy in reducing the firms’ burden and stimulating the vitality of micro market entities. Second, this study continues the discussion of Dyreng and Maydew (2018)by supplementing relevant studies on non-income-based taxes, using the employment tax as the research object. Third, it enriches the research on the causes of cost stickiness from the perspective of the labor costs. Much of the literature focuses on the drivers of cost stickiness, pointing out that cost stickiness is driven by adjustment costs, managerial expectations, and agency problems. Pension is an important component of firms’ labor costs. This paper complements the previous research on the causes of cost stickiness by showing that the fee reduction policy leads to a decrease in firms’ labor costs and the tendency to hire more labor rather than purchase equipment.

Key words: Pension Contribution Rate, Fee Reduction, Cost Stickiness

摘要：

十九届五中全会提出建立现代财税体制。减税降费是财税体制改革的一项重要举措。当前,我国企业普遍面临养老保险费率水平较高带来的负担,探讨养老保险降费政策能否降低企业负担、激发微观主体活力具有理论和现实的双重意义。本文发现养老保险降费政策降低了企业成本粘性,且研究结论在低工资水平、高雇员密集度、较小规模和非国有性质的企业中更为显著。本文从成本粘性视角考察了降费政策对企业减负的影响,为政府部门进一步深化养老保险降费改革提供理论支撑。

关键词: 养老保险缴费, 降费政策, 成本粘性