{"title":"The effect of political connections on the distribution of firm performance","authors":"Xuan Li , Yanchen Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102289","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Political connections have the potential to redistribute rents toward connected firms, and away from non-connected ones. In this paper, we show that this is indeed the case for Chinese listed firms during 2008–2015. Connected firms (as proxied by college ties between senior management and local leaders) have higher Return on Assets (ROA) and more government subsidies, while non-connected firms experience a significant decline in both ROA and subsidy when executive turnover or political rotation leads to the creation of connected firms in the city. The differential effects on non-connected firms within the same industry versus those in different industries suggest that non-connected firms outside the industry are more adversely affected due to leaders' attempts to mask favoritism with broad industrial policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48285,"journal":{"name":"中国经济评论","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 102289"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"中国经济评论","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X24001780","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Political connections have the potential to redistribute rents toward connected firms, and away from non-connected ones. In this paper, we show that this is indeed the case for Chinese listed firms during 2008–2015. Connected firms (as proxied by college ties between senior management and local leaders) have higher Return on Assets (ROA) and more government subsidies, while non-connected firms experience a significant decline in both ROA and subsidy when executive turnover or political rotation leads to the creation of connected firms in the city. The differential effects on non-connected firms within the same industry versus those in different industries suggest that non-connected firms outside the industry are more adversely affected due to leaders' attempts to mask favoritism with broad industrial policy.
期刊介绍:
The China Economic Review publishes original works of scholarship which add to the knowledge of the economy of China and to economies as a discipline. We seek, in particular, papers dealing with policy, performance and institutional change. Empirical papers normally use a formal model, a data set, and standard statistical techniques. Submissions are subjected to double-blind peer review.