Abstract: Using medical insurance (MI) to shift employees' health risks outside is an important risk management tool for modern firms. Existing studies usually treat firms' contributions to employees' MI only as a labor cost. However, contributing to MI also has indirect benefits, such as improved labor productivity and R&D innovation, which consequently increase corporate value. This paper studies the impact of firms' MI contributions for employees on corporate value, using social insurance collection system reform in China as a natural experiment. Results show that, first, the reform increases firms' contributions to employees' MI funds. Second, the increase has a positive impact on firms' market-to-book ratio. These effects can be explained by enhanced labor productivity, firm efficiency, and innovation. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the effects are more pronounced for firms in high R&D industries, areas with high pollution, or areas with better medical and labor supplies.

Keywords: corporate value, employee health risks, medical insurance contribution

该文在线发表于2023年9月 Journal of Risk and Insurance，该期刊为kaiyun中国官方网站学术期刊分级方案A-级奖励期刊。Journal of Risk and Insurance 是由美国风险管理与保险学会（American Risk and Insurance Association）主办的旗舰期刊，是全球风险管理与保险领域排名第一的期刊。

原文链接： https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jori.12448