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Social insurance premiums and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from social insurance law in China

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  • Deng, Lixing
  • Lai, Shaojie
  • Liu, Shiang
  • Pu, Xiaoling

Abstract

Corporate liquidity management is closely related to firms’ labor costs. The relationship between cash holdings and labor costs proxied by social insurance premiums is underexplored in existing literature. We explore the enactment of the 2011 Social Insurance Law in China to investigate how social insurance premiums affect corporate cash holdings policy. We find that higher social insurance premiums lead to larger cash holdings for labor-intensive firms through the increased operating leverage. Our findings are robust to falsification analysis, placebo tests, and alternative proxies for key variables. The positive effect is stronger for firms with better legal environments, state-owned enterprises, and those with more migrant workers. In addition, the excess cash holdings by labor-intensive firms increase future operating performance and firm value. Overall, our findings are in line with the precautionary theory.

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  • Deng, Lixing & Lai, Shaojie & Liu, Shiang & Pu, Xiaoling, 2022. "Social insurance premiums and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from social insurance law in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:114:y:2022:i:c:s0264999322001900
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2022.105944
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    5. Yu, Jingyuan & Zhao, Heyun & Mo, Longjiong, 2023. "Can social insurance contributions boost labor share?—Evidence from China’s social insurance law," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 701-715.
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    7. Wenjing Bi & Yifei Li & Xiaotao Zhang & Tenglong Zhong, 2024. "Labor protection and enterprise digital transformation: A quasi‐natural experiment based on the enforcement of Social Insurance Law in China," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 708-733, July.
    8. Jin, Gang & Zhang, Jiwen & Ye, Yongwei & Yao, Shiqi & Song, Jingxiang, 2024. "Social insurance law and firm markup in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social insurance law; Corporate liquidity; Cash holdings; Precautionary theory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

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