ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Social Insurance Premium Reduction and Green Innovation in Enterprises: A Study Based on Social Insurance Premium Reduction Reform
- LY
Li Yan 1,2,3
- HC
Haixia Cao 1
- ZF
Zihao Fu 1
- ZS
Zhihong Song 3
1. Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences, Taiyuan, China
2. North University of China, Taiyuan, China
3. Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China
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Abstract
The previous economic development model, which focused primarily on scale expansion, has led to severe environmental pollution. Therefore, green innovation development with environmental protection as its core has become particularly important. Against the backdrop of high-quality economic development and tax cuts and fee reductions, exploring the impact of social security contribution burdens on corporate green innovation holds significant theoretical and policy implications. This paper treats the 2019 social insurance premium reduction policy as a "quasi-natural experiment." Using data on ChineseA-share listed companies from 2013 to 2024, it employs the PSM-DID method to identify the policy's effects. The study finds that the reduction in social insurance premiums significantly promoted corporate green innovation, and that the policy effects exhibited a certain degree of persistence. Mechanism tests indicate that the fee reduction improved firms ' main business revenue, reduced their debt burden, and increased R&D investment, supporting the "income effect" hypothesis. However, no evidence was found that factor substitution significantly weakened green innovation. Heterogeneity tests indicate that the policy ' s green innovation effect is relatively stronger in regions with high environmental regulations, labor-intensive enterprises, and highly polluting industries, while there are no significant differences across groups in terms of ownership structure, local fiscal capacity, and the degree of marketization. Further analysis reveals that the policy has a relatively pronounced promotional effect on green utility model patents, whereas its impact on green invention patents is not yet significant, indicating that general cost-reduction policies still have limitations in incentivizing long-term, high-risk green innovation. This paper elucidates the green innovation effects of social insurance premium reductions from the perspective of corporate innovation resource allocation, providing empirical evidence for the coordinated design of social insurance policies and green innovation support policies.
Summary
Keywords
Green technology innovation, green technology innovation motivation, Income effect, PSM-DID, Social security contribution reduction policy, Substitution effect
Received
06 May 2026
Accepted
04 August 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Yan, Cao, Fu and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Li Yan
Disclaimer
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