社会保险缴费会加剧企业盈余管理吗?

Social Insurance Payment Level and Earnings Management

本文基于2012—2021年A股上市公司数据从盈余管理角度考察了社会保险缴费的经济效应。研究表明,社会保险缴费水平的提高加剧了企业盈余管理,其主要实现机制是劳动力成本的增加和利润的压减。在稳健性检验中,本文变更了社会保险缴费水平和盈余管理的计算方式,排除了税收变化、时变因素和政策变化的影响,研究结果仍保持稳健。异质性分析结果显示,这种加剧作用在金融化水平越低、市场化水平越低、劳动力相对势力越强、内外部治理能力越弱的非国有企业中越明显。本文为深化企业社会保险缴费制度改革,尤其是社会保险缴费率及社会保险缴费基数的优化设计,提供了理论参考。

The rising social insurance payment pressure will affect the financial decision-making behavior of enterprises by reducing their willingness and level of participation.Based on the data of A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021,this paper examines the economic effects of social insurance contributions from the perspective of earnings management.The study found that the improvement of the level of social insurance contributions has intensified the earnings management of enterprises,and its main realization mechanism is the increase of labor costs and the reduction of profits.In the robustness test,this paper changed the calculation method of social insurance payment level and earnings management,excluding the impact of wage adjustment,tax changes,time-varying factors and policy changes,and the research results remain stable.Heterogeneity analysis found that this aggravating effect is more obvious in non-state-owned enterprises with lower financial level,lower marketization level,stronger relative power of labor force,and weaker internal and external governance level.Further research found that earnings management caused by the slow rise of social insurance contributions damaged the value of enterprises,especially those enterprises that adopted real earnings management to cope.This paper is helpful to provide theoretical reference for deepening the reform of corporate social insurance payment system,especially for the optimization design of social insurance payment rate and social insurance payment base.