Politically Connected Firms Research Articles

Влияние политических связей и государственной собственности на деятельность фирм в России

Политические связи (ПС) и их влияние на деятельность фирм – один из самых актуальных для развивающихся рынков, в том числе для России, аспектов корпоративного управления. От состава совета директоров компании зависит весь спектр ключевых корпоративных решений, как инвестиционных, так и финансовых. Наличие аффилированного лица/представителя государства может или усугублять агентскую проблему, приводя к неэффективности связанных компаний, или, наоборот, приводить к улучшению показателей за счет различных преференций и выгод от политической власти. Вопрос направления влияния политических связей на результаты деятельности фирм уже не первое десятилетие является предметом обсуждения, как в академическом сообществе, так и среди широкой общественности, однако для России наблюдается дефицит исследований по данной тематике.
 На основе панельных данных за 2011-2014 гг. в работе исследуется влияние политических связей на результаты деятельности нефинансовых публичных предприятий России. Выборка из 106 компаний делится на две подвыборки: политически связанные фирмы (ПСФ) и фирмы, не обладающие данным признаком (НСФ). В центре внимания в данной работе находятся два основных вопроса: как нахождение политически связанного лица в совете директоров влияет на балансовые и рыночные показатели эффективности предприятия, на уровень ликвидности, на доступ к заемному финансированию и его стоимость, а также, в целом, какую роль группа политически аффилированных директоров играет в корпоративном управлении. В качестве меры результатов деятельности фирм используются показатели рентабельности (ROA, ROE, рентабельность по EBIT и оборачиваемость активов) и q-Тобина.
 По результатам эконометрического анализа сделан вывод о том, что между степенью политической связанности и балансовой эффективностью компании имеется нелинейная зависимость: положительное влияние политических связей меняется на отрицательное при достижении отметки в 27% аффилированности совета директоров. Это является косвенным подтверждением теории агентских издержек. Также мы находим квадратичную зависимость между долей политически связанных директоров и количеством денежных средств на счетах. Однако следует отметить, что основное воздействие исходит только от ПС не ниже федерального уровня. Гипотезы о положительном влиянии политических связей на доступ к заемному финансированию и отрицательном - на стоимость долга, не были подтверждены.

Having the wrong friends at the wrong time: Effects of political turmoil on politically-connected firms

We examine effects of political turmoil on equity return, risk, and corporate governance of politically-connected firms in Egypt. Political strife leads to shifts in the balance of power among different factions. Our analysis shows that equity risk of firms connected to fractions encountering intense political rivalry and public discontent rose, without any compensating increase in return. Political tie that is neutral to regime changes exhibits lower risk. By examining agency-cost measures in different regimes, we find that political instability may exert disciplinary effects on connected shareholders' behavior. In our sample, expropriation in the connected firms became subdued during Egypt's unrest.

Political connections, institutional monitoring and the cost of debt: evidence from Malaysian firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the main and joint effects of politically connected firms (PCFs) and institutional monitoring on the cost of debt.Design/methodology/approachBased on a panel data set of Malaysian politically connected and non-politically connected listed firms from 2002 till 2015, the author performs regression analysis. To address the issue of self-selection, the PCFs’ equation is estimated, following Lennox et al. (2012) and Heckman (1979).FindingsThis paper finds that PCFs are associated with higher cost of debt. However, the positive association between PCFs and the cost of debt is attenuated by higher institutional ownership (IO). Further test reveals that monitoring by institutional investors is heterogeneous from the perspective of domicile. Local institutional investors are associated with lower cost of debt, particularly in PCFs, while foreign institutional investors are associated with higher cost of debt.Originality/valueThe author shows that firm outcome, i.e. cost of debt in emerging markets can differ from advanced markets due to different institutional setting. Additionally, different types of political ties can produce different firm outcomes: GLCs are associated with lower cost of debt as opposed to connected firms based on personal ties. However, agency problems in PCFs can be alleviated through effective institutional monitoring. Consistent with geographical proximity theory, local institutional investors play a more effective monitoring role in Malaysian listed firms, thus lowering cost of debt. Overall, the results contribute to deeper understanding on variation in firm outcomes between emerging and advanced markets.

Are Politically Connected Firms Turtles or Gazelles? Evidence from the Egyptian Uprising

Using an original firm-level dataset and utilizing the incidence of the Egyptian uprising of 2011, this paper provides an empirical investigation of the effects of firms’ political connections on employment growth in Egypt. We use the differences-in-differences (DiD) framework to compare employment growth in both politically connected firms (PCFs) and their unconnected counterparts before and after the Egyptian uprising. To minimize possible bias in the DiD estimation due to dealing with a heterogeneous group of firms, we apply the propensity score matching (PSM). We find that politically connected firms have decreased their job creation after the uprising.

Political connections, institutional investors monitoring and stock price synchronicity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the association between politically connected (POLCON) firms and stock price synchronicity, and whether this association can be attenuated by institutional investors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses an ordinary least square regression model to examine the association between POLCON firms and stock price synchronicity; institutional ownership and stock price synchronicity; the moderating role of institutional ownership on the association between POLCON firms and stock price synchronicity; institutional domiciles and stock price synchronicity; and the moderating role of institutional domiciles on the association between POLCON firms and stock price synchronicity.FindingsThe result shows that POLCON firms are positively associated with stock price synchronicity. Further, the author also finds that institutional monitoring, through higher ownership by local institutional investors is associated with lower stock price synchronicity. In addition, this study documents evidence that institutional investors, particularly local institutional investors can improve stock price informativeness in POLCON firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe results suggest that POLCON firms are plagued by severe agency problems, resulting in limited flow of firm-specific information to the capital markets. However, the author shows that POLCON firm’s agency problems can be attenuated through effective monitoring by institutional investors. Further, institutional domiciles are shown to be significantly associated with stock price synchronocity. However, effective monitoring is largely driven by local institutional investors, in line with the geographical proximity theory.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that regulators should increase their surveillance and monitoring effort, particularly on firms with close ties to the government. In particular, POLCON firms should be required to be more transparent in their corporate dealings. Additionally, auditors should intensify their audit efforts on POLCON firm to provide more reliable financial information to minority shareholders, investors and analysts. Finally, institutional investors should be incentivized by the Malaysian Securities Commission, via, the code of governance to play an effective monitoring role in Malaysian firms.Originality/valueThis study reveals that POLCON firms’ severe agency problems can be alleviated by effective institutional monitoring. Further result identifies institutional domiciles as a significant factor in influencing monitoring effectiveness in POLCON firms. This paper provides insights into the dynamic interaction between political connections, institutional monitoring, firm governance and capital markets behavior of an emerging market.

Beyond Globalizing POEs and SOEs: Multiple-level Framing of Core Illegitimacy Attributes

This paper addresses an important but under-theorized topic by developing a socio-cognitive model to explain illegitimacy concerns associated with politically-connected firms when undertaking overs...

Political Connections: An Explanation for the Consistently Poor Performance of China's Stock Markets

The fact that the consistently poor performance of China’s stock markets has not matched China’s rapid economic growth has been puzzling. Using samples of private-owned enterprises publicly traded on China’s stock markets, this article finds that 74% of these firms are politically-connected and that politically-connected firms are more likely to report significant deterioration in financial performance upon completing IPOs. The widespread existence and ubiquitous importance of political connections in China’s stock markets suggests that to some degree, China’s stock markets have been regulated on a political connections-based regime, which may explain the poor performance of China’s stock markets.

Conexxes Pollticas E Acesso Ao Crrdito Do Bndes (Political Connections and Access to Brazilian Development Bank's Credit)

Previous studies suggest that politically-connected firms buy from politicians access to borrowing from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). By employing a regression discontinuity design approach, we challenge this claim and show that federal deputies were not able to systematically influence BNDES credit allocation. Nonetheless, there remains the puzzle of a strong positive correlation between business groups’ donations to winning federal deputies and the amount of loans they borrow from the bank, which cannot be explained by business groups’ performance and financial characteristics. This observed pattern may indicate that other political connections, proxied by donations to winning federal deputies, facilitate the access to the bank’s loans.

Institutional Monitoring, Political Connection and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Malaysia

In this paper, we examine the main and joint effects of institutional monitoring and politically connected (PCON) firms on the cost of debt. Based on a sample of 1,565 firm-year observations for the period 2005-2010, we provide evidence that (1) institutional ownership (IO) is associated with lower cost of debt, and (2) institutional ownership attenuates the positive association between PCON firms and the cost of debt. When we split IO into local and foreign institutional investors, we find that it is the local IO, and not foreign IO that leads to lower cost of debt and attenuates the association between PCON firms and the cost of debt. Overall, our results suggest that IO, particularly local IOs, can alleviate agency problems in PCON firms through active monitoring and contributes to a better understanding of the monitoring role of institutional investors in Malaysian firms.

The Cyclicality of Political Connections: An Investigation into Changes in Reserve Requirements in China

In this paper I will explore the cyclical nature of political connections by investigating market reactions to news of a unique and effective method of monetary contraction in China: the adjustment of reserve requirements. I illustrate that politically-connected firms, when the ultimate controller is either the central or the local government, demonstrate an additional negative cumulative abnormal return (CAR) when the reserve requirement is increased. There is also a lower level of real activity on the part of those connected firms during the tightening period. I argue that this impact is likely to be exerted through the bank-lending channel: specifically, banks are not willing to lend to connected firms due to the concern of either a higher probability of them defaulting, or a lower probability of a bailout from the government. This effect is less likely to result from other factors, such as changes in the value of collateral, decreases in investment opportunities, or government intervention in regard to banks.

Audit Committee and Audit Fees in Malaysia: The Moderating Role of Political Connection

The Malaysian corporate governance regime underwent significant enhancement through the revamp of the Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements (BMLR) in 2008 in respect of audit committee characteristics in order to address adverse market perceptions of its relationship based economy with the strong presence of politically connected (PCON) firms. This study investigates whether such reforms have made a difference. We examine if PCON firms have higher audit fees post implementation of BMLR 2008 on audit committee characteristics. Using data from 945 firm-year observations for 2005 to 2009 we find that PCON firms have higher audit fees due to improved governance which demands an increase in audit effort. Further, the association between audit committee independence, diligence, and expertise and audit fee is stronger post-2008, suggesting that PCON firms are committed to strong corporate governance and are prepared to pay a higher quality external audit work.

Political Connection and Firm Value

We study the effect of political connection (PC) on company value in an environment where low PC is due to better institutions and not confounded by favorable social/cultural factors. We find that in Singapore, the only country that fits this description, PC in general adds little to the value of a company. However, in industries that are subject to more stringent government regulations, PC appears to be somewhat important. Robustness checks show that alternative PC variables give rise to similar results, and the addition of control variables do not drastically change the findings. Politically connected firms have higher managerial ownership and tend to be smaller than non-PC firms, rendering them more susceptible to poorer governance practices. We show that the presence of politically connected directors somewhat neutralizes such potential negative effects. PC firms are associated with good governance practices such as nonduality in their chairman and chief executive officer positions and fewer executive directors.

Political connection and leverage: Some Malaysian evidence

This paper extends prior work on the linkage between politically connected (PCON) firms and capital structure in developing countries. Specifically, this paper focuses on the association between Malaysian PCON firms and leverage, and is motivated by the results of Fraser et al. (2006) who report a positive association between leverage and political patronage. Controlling for a potential misspecification in that paper, this study documents that a significant proportion (almost 12%) of the Malaysian PCON firms have negative equity, and builds on the previous paper by providing fresh evidence that market to book ratio is positively associated with leverage, and that borrowing PCON firms have significantly lower ROA compared to non-PCON firms.

Political connection and cost of debt: Some Malaysian evidence

This paper investigates the association between Malaysian politically connected (PCON) firms and the cost of debt. We extend previous research that finds Malaysian PCON firms are perceived as being of higher risk by the market, and by audit firms, by providing evidence that lenders also perceive these firms as being of higher risk. We also find that PCON firms have a significantly (1) higher extent of leverage, (2) higher likelihood of reporting a loss, (3) higher likelihood of having negative equity, and (4) higher likelihood of being audited by a big audit firm. We suggest that PCON firms are charged higher interest rates by lenders as a result of efficient contracting given their higher inherent risks. Additionally, we find that CEO duality present in PCON firms is perceived by lenders as being more risky, and that a higher proportion of independent directors on the audit committee mitigate this perceived risk.

Chinese firms’ political connection, ownership, and financing constraints

We empirically examine some listed Chinese firms’ political connection, ownership, and financing constraints. Politically-connected firms display no financing constraints whereas firms without connection experience significant constraints. Non-connected family-controlled firms bear greater constraints than non-connected state-owned firms.

What Do Development Banks Do? Evidence from Brazil, 2002-2009

While some authors view development banks as an important tool to alleviate capital constraints in scarce credit markets and unlock productive investments, others see those banks as conduits of cheap loans to politically-connected firms that could obtain capital elsewhere. We test these contrasting views using data on loans and equity allocations in the period 2002-2009 by the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), one of the largest development banks in the world. In our fixed effect regressions, we find that BNDES’ allocations do not seem to affect firm-level operational performance and investment decisions, although they do reduce firm-level cost of capital due to the governmental subsidies accompanying loans. Next, examining the selection process through which BNDES’ capital is allocated to firms, we find that BNDES apparently selects firms with good operational performance but also provides more capital to firms with political connections (measured as campaign donations to politicians who won an election). Yet, we do not find evidence that BNDES is systematically bailing out firms. In general, BNDES appears to be generally selecting firms with capacity to repay their loans, as regular commercial banks would do.

Do political connections affect the role of independent audit committees and CEO Duality? Some evidence from Malaysian audit pricing

This study examines whether political connection to firms affects the association between audit committee independence and demand for higher quality audits. In line with Carcello et al. (2002), our findings show that there is a positive association between audit committee independence and audit fees thus supporting the hypothesis that more independent audit committees demand higher audit quality. However, we find that this relationship is weaker for politically connected (PCON) firms suggesting that the independence of audit committees in Malaysian PCON firms may be compromised. Additionally, we provide evidence that PCON firms that have CEO duality are perceived by audit firms as being of higher risk than CEO duality firms without political connection.

Political Connections and Firm Performance: The Case of Hong Kong

Business interests are overrepresented in Hong Kong's nominally democratic political institutions. Many in Hong Kong perceive this as evidence of the existence of “collusion between government and business,” a phenomenon that has stirred public concerns in the city since its sovereignty transfer. Although anecdotal accounts abound, no systematic analysis has been conducted to evaluate the validity of this perception. In this article I use a rich firm-level dataset to offer the first systematic assessment of the effects of political connections on firm performance in Hong Kong. I define politically connected firms as firms that have stakeholders concurrently holding a seat on the Election Committee, a constitutional body that elects the city's chief executive. I found evidence, though not overwhelming, consistent with the “collusion” hypothesis: political connections do improve firm performance measured by return on equity and market-to-book ratio. The improvement is unlikely due to unobserved confounding factors such as firms' inherent ability. As for the origin of the political connections, the data show that a firm's economic power has little predictive value of its connections to the Election Committee. Rather, number of employees matters; firms that hire fewer workers were more likely to gain a seat on the 1997 Election Committee. This result may suggest that Beijing plays a more dominant role in the formation of political connections—that serve Beijing's co-optation needs rather than the interests of powerful firms that may have a desire to “capture” the state.

Political connections of newly privatized firms

We investigate the extent of political connections in newly privatized firms. Using a sample of 245 privatized firms headquartered in 27 developing and 14 developed countries over the period 1980 to 2002, we find that 87 firms have a politician or an ex-politician on their board of directors. Politically-connected firms are generally incorporated in major cities, are highly leveraged, and operate in regulated sectors. The likelihood of observing political connections in these firms is positively related to government residual ownership, and negatively related to foreign ownership. Political fractionalization and tenure, as well as judicial independence are also key explanatory variables. Finally, politically-connected firms exhibit a poor accounting performance compared to their non-connected counterparts.

The Economics of Politically-Connected Firms

Political connections between firms and autocratic regimes are not secret and often even publicly displayed in many developing economies. We argue that tying a firm's available rent to a regime's survival acts as a credible commitment forcing entrepreneurs to support the government and to exert effort in its stabilization. In return, politically connected firms get access to profitable markets and are exempted from the regime's extortion. We show that such a gift exchange between government and politically connected firms can only exist if certain institutional conditions are met. In particular, the stability of the regime has to be sufficiently low and the regime needs the power to exploit independent firms. We also show that building up a network of politically connected firms acts as a substitute for investments in autonomous stability (such as spending on military and police force). The indirect strategy of stabilizing a regime via politically connected firms gradually becomes inferior when a regime's exploitative power rises.