Abstract: Reducing taxes and fees to stabilize businesses and maintain employment is an important focus of the current government work. To explore the crucial practical issue of whether corporate income tax reduction helps stabilize employment and secure livelihoods, this paper attempts to construct a theoretical model to analyze the influence of changes in corporate income tax rates on firms' employment decisions. Then it employs the implementation of the 2008 Corporate Income Tax Law as a quasi-natural experiment to conduct empirical tests by using a difference-in-differences model. The results show that a decrease in the tax rate significantly increased the scale of labor employment in enterprises. Conversely, an increase in the tax rate did not affect the scale of employment in enterprises. Additional analysis indicates that the beneficial effect of lowering the corporate income tax rate on employment is most evident among firms experiencing significant financing constraints, high levels of tax compliance, and those operating in highly competitive product markets. The mechanism analysis indicates that the decrease in the tax rate promotes corporate investment, which, due to capital-labor complementarity, ultimately leads to an increase in the scale of enterprise employment. This study deepens the understanding of the labor employment effects of tax reduction policies, contributing to the formulation and adjustment of subsequent tax reduction policies. Additionally, it provides policy insights into the tax administration reforms and market-oriented construction.

Key words: Corporate Income Tax Reform, Corporate Income Tax Rate, Labor Employment, Capital-Labor Complementarity

摘要： 通过减税降费着力稳预期、稳增长、稳就业是当前政府工作的重要内容。为回应企业所得税减税是否有助于稳就业这一重大现实问题,本文构建了一个简单的理论模型来分析企业所得税税率变动对企业劳动雇佣行为的影响,并以2008年我国企业所得税法正式实施为政策冲击进行因果识别。研究发现,企业所得税税率下降显著提高了企业劳动雇佣规模,税率上升则未产生明显影响。进一步分析发现,税率下降对企业雇佣的正向影响主要体现在面临较强融资约束的企业、税收遵从程度较高的企业以及产品市场竞争程度较高的企业。机制分析表明,税率下降促进了企业投资,由于资本-劳动互补,最终引起企业雇佣规模上升。本文的研究加深了对减税降费政策劳动雇佣效应的理解,有助于后续减税政策的出台与调整,也为税收征管改革和市场化建设提供了政策启示。

关键词: 企业所得税改革, 企业所得税率, 劳动雇佣, 资本-劳动互补