政治联系、企业非生产性支出与生产效率——来自中国民营上市公司的证据

本文以民营上市公司为研究样本,探究了民营企业政治联系、非生产性支出与生产效率三者之间的关系。结果表明,在控制了民营企业的特征变量之后,政治联系显著降低了企业的非生产性支出;而在制度环境越差的地区,政治联系的这种效应越明显。进一步的研究结果表明,非生产性支出对企业生产效率具有负向影响,而政治联系对企业生产效率没有直接的影响,但政治联系显著缓解了非生产性支出对企业生产效率的负向影响。     

我国民营企业集团内部资本市场配置效率的实证研究

本文以2003-2006为数据窗口,选取我国资本市场上20个民营系属上市公司为研究样本,利用EWIEWS软件对企业系中ICM的配置效率进行了实证研究。研究结果表明:①我国民营系内存在着活跃的资本市场,民营对比公司的投资支出对现金流的敏感性要明显高于民营系属公司,说明企业系中的ICM发挥了重新配置资本的功能。②由于系属上市公司对托宾Q不敏感(系数为负),故系属上市公司中的资本并没有高效率地配置给市场前景较好的投资项目。     

我国民营企业集团内部资本市场配置效率的实证研究

本文以2003-2006为数据窗口,选取我国资本市场上20个民营系属上市公司为研究样本,利用EWIEWS软件对企业系中ICM的配置效率进行了实证研究。研究结果表明:①我国民营系内存在着活跃的资本市场,民营对比公司的投资支出对现金流的敏感性要明显高于民营系属公司,说明企业系中的ICM发挥了重新配置资本的功能。②由于系属上市公司对托宾Q不敏感(系数为负),故系属上市公司中的资本并没有高效率地配置给市场前景较好的投资项目。     

制度环境、政治关系与会计信息质量——来自中国民营上市公司的检验

文章以2007～2009年中国613家民营上市公司为样本,考察了制度环境、政治关系与企业会计信息质量三者的相互关系。研究发现:政治关系显著影响我国民营上市公司会计信息质量,有政治关系的民营上市公司会计信息质量显著低于无政治关系的民营上市公司,且这种影响存在显著的地域差异,中西部地区有政治关系的民营上市公司会计信息质量显著低于无政治关系公司,但东部地区民营上市公司政治关系对会计信息质量的影响并不显著,究其根源是因为我国不同地区存在显著的制度差异,制度环境能有效削弱政治关系对民营上市公司会计信息质量的影响。     

我国民营企业集团内部资本市场配置效率的实证研究

本文以2003～2006为数据窗口,选取我国资本市场上20个民营系属上市公司为研究样本,利用EWIEWS软件对企业系中ICM的配置效率进行了实证研究.研究结果表明:①我国民营系内存在着活跃的资本市场,民营对比公司的投资支出对现金流的敏感性要明显高于民营系属公司,说明企业系中的ICM发挥了重新配置资本的功能.②由于系属上市公司对托宾Q不敏感(系数为负),故系属上市公司中的资本并没有高效率地配置给市场前景较好的投资项目.     

政府支出、金融发展与经济增长北大核心CSSCISSCI

本文基于我国1990-2014年的分省面板数据,采用系统GMM估计方法对政府支出、金融发展和经济增长之间的关系进行了实证分析。实证结果表明:(1)政府支出和经济增长存在显著的倒U型关系,在拐点出现之前,政府支出增加能显著促进经济增长,但当越过拐点之后,政府支出继续扩大则会对经济增长产生不利影响;(2)金融发展和经济增长之间存在显著的正相关关系,且政府支出和金融发展的交叉项系数显著为正,这说明现阶段的金融发展依然能够有效地发挥资源配置功能,同时完善的金融市场能够显著增强政府支出对经济增长的促进作用;(3)在经济发达地区,金融发展能够对经济增长产生正面影响,同时政府对市场的干预作用趋于弱化,而在经济欠发达地区,金融发展对经济发展存在抑制效应,这说明在经济欠发达地区,金融发展滞后使其难以充分发挥有效配置资源的作用,而经济发展则在很大程度上依赖于政府支出的调节。     

寻租、R&D投资与公司业绩——基于民营上市公司的经验证据

本文手工搜集了2005-2009年中国民营上市公司R&D投资及高管政治联系的数据,从寻租行为与R&D投资活动的竞争性视角,实证研究了两者对公司业绩的影响趋势。本文结果表明,R&D投资持续、稳定地对公司业绩具有显著地提升作用,而寻租行为虽然短期对公司业绩有利,但却显著地损害了公司未来的业绩。本文研究结果表明,R&D投资,而非寻租,才是公司持续性业绩增长的关键。     

上市企业经营绩效的区域差异研究

本文研究上市公司经营绩效区域差异的分布特征,并从宏观经济因素、制度环境、产业结构和公司治理等方面分析了影响上市公司经营绩效区域差异的原因。研究结果表明:(1)三大经济地带上市公司的经营绩效在空间上表现出东——中——西逐渐递减的趋势;(2)市场规模、产业结构、固定资产投资、对外贸易、地区市场化、政府管理能力和法制化水平与上市公司绩效指标或部分指标之间表现为显著的正相关关系;(3)第一大股东持股比例与上市公司经营绩效之间具有倒U型关系,而股权制衡度与上市公司经营绩效之间具有显著的正相关关系。     

上市公司负债水平与投资支出关系的实证研究

较高的负债水平对投资支出的影响表现为抑制正常投资和约束过度投资两个方面.本文使用2000～2002年间的面板数据,检验了我国上市公司的负债水平与其投资支出之间的关系及其影响机制.实证结果表明,在国有股比例低的公司中,高负债抑制了高增长性企业的投资支出;国有股比例高的公司中,高负债既没有约束低增长性公司的过度投资,也没有抑制高增长性公司的正常投资.这些结论对我国宏观政策的制定提供了有益启示.     

上市公司过度投资行为及其制约机制的实证研究

经理的机会主义引发企业过度投资行为,西方学者通过考察投资现金流相关性研究企业过度投资问题并找到相应经验证据。利用上市公司(2000—2002)数据研究上市公司是否存在过度投资行为以及相关制约机制是否有效,结果表明,(1)我国上市公司存在过度投资行为;(2)现金股利、举借债务是过度投资行为的有效制约机制;(3)公司治理机制在制约过度投资行为中基本有效,但是,独立董事并未发挥作用。     

Bank lending incentives and firm investment decisions in China

This study investigates whether and how banks’ lending incentives influence firms’ investment behaviors in China. First, empirical results show that loans granted to politically connected firms are less influenced by those firms’ profitability and tangibility. Second, political connection is a violation factor in debt markets, and our study finds that firms with political ties invest less efficiently than firms without political ties when they can access abnormal debt. Finally, we find that regional development with regard to market development and government quality improvement reduces the negative impact of politically connected lending on firms’ investment efficiency.     

Firm-level political risk and distance-to-default

This study provides the first empirical evidence of the relationship between firm-level political risk and distance-to-default. Based on our examination of a quarterly dataset of 2727 U.S. firms covering a period from January 2002 to April 2019, we conclude that firm-level political risk is negatively associated with distance-to-default. We document three economic mechanisms through which political risk increases default risk: information asymmetry, organizational capital, and investment growth. The evidence indicates that the association is more pronounced for firms with low analysts’ forecast accuracy, organizational capital, and investment growth. Employing hand-collected data, we also reveal that firms are able to exploit their corporate lobbying to immunize themselves against default risk. Our findings are robust to different endogeneity identifications, including a natural experiment, alternative distance-to-default proxies, and different sub-samples. Overall, we present novel evidence of an adverse impact of firm-level political risk on distance-to-default and how such a negative effect can be mitigated.     

Political Uncertainty and Corporate Investment Cycles

We document cycles in corporate investment corresponding with the timing of national elections around the world. During election years, firms reduce investment expenditures by an average of 4.8% relative to nonelection years, controlling for growth opportunities and economic conditions. The magnitude of the investment cycles varies with different country and election characteristics. We investigate several potential explanations and find evidence supporting the hypothesis that political uncertainty leads firms to reduce investment expenditures until the electoral uncertainty is resolved. These findings suggest that political uncertainty is an important channel through which the political process affects real economic outcomes.     

Emerging Stars and Developed Neighbors: The Effects of Development Imbalance and Political Shocks on Mutual Fund Investments in China

This paper examines the influence of regional economic development on mutual funds investment decisions. Using fund holdings from 2003 to 2008, we find that Chinese mutual funds that collectively reside in the developed coastal region have the ability to select “star” firms from neighboring inland areas and overweight them in their portfolios. However, they present a clear local bias within the coastal region. Such investment behavior is robust to political interventions. In particular, changes in political climate make mutual funds seek fundamentals like growth prospects and diversification benefits. Overall, economic and political factors significantly influence mutual funds investment decisions in emerging China.     

Political uncertainty and corporate investment: Evidence from China

Using hand-collected data on changes of government officials in 277 Chinese cities, we examine how political turnover affects corporate investment in a transitional economy. We find that political turnover leads firms to significantly reduce corporate investment, particularly when the new official is an outsider appointed by a higher level government. The effect of political turnover on corporate investment is stronger for state-owned enterprises, capital intensive firms, and firms deemed locally important. Overall, the volatility of corporate investment increases with political turnover. Finally, the investment decline due to political turnover has significantly negative impact on the profitability of private firms, but not state-owned firms.     

THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL CONNECTIONS ON FIRMS’ OPERATING PERFORMANCE AND FINANCING DECISIONS

We investigate the impact that the political connections of publicly traded firms have on their performance and financing decisions. Using a long‐term event study covering a sample of 234 politically connected firms headquartered in 12 developed and 11 developing countries from 1989 to 2003, we find that firms increase their performance and indebtedness after the establishment of a political connection. We also find that the political connection is more strongly associated with changes in leverage and operating performance for firms with closer ties to political power. Overall, our study confirms that politically connected firms gain easier access to credit and reap benefits in terms of performance from their ties with politicians.     

Why do firms disclose and not disclose structural intangibles?

This study conducts 22 interviews with the directors of 11 firms chosen from the top 30 listed firms by market capital on the Colombo Stock Exchange, with each firm representing an industry. The interviews explore senior executives' views about disclosing the structural intangibles in annual reports to attract financial investments. The study identifies 20 intangible resources in 10 intangible classes. It analyzes the interview data using latent thematic analysis and explores them as responses to social, political, and economic interest groups. Corroborating interview data with annual report data, this study identifies five broad reasons for disclosure and non-disclosure. Build empathy, show they are good corporate citizens, win government support, and build confidence are about disclosure, and divert attention from issues at hand is about non-disclosure. This study finds that disclosure results in managing legitimacy of the social and political interest groups, and also in managing impressions of the economic interest group. Non-disclosure results in managing impressions of the social and political interest groups. The findings contribute to building an evidence-led theoretical connection to understand the structural intangibles disclosed and not disclosed to attract financial investment to firms.     

Transactional and relational approaches to political connections and the cost of debt

This paper examines the economic effects of a firm's approach to developing and maintaining political connections. Specifically, we investigate whether lenders favor transactional connection as opposed to relational connection. By tracing firms in a politically volatile emerging democracy in Indonesia, we find that firms following a transactional political connection strategy experience a relatively lower cost of debt than those with a relational strategy. The effect is more pronounced for firms facing high financial distress. The finding is robust to cost of bank loans and a variety of regression methods. Overall, the evidence suggests that in times of frequently changing political regimes, firms benefit from a transactional relationship with politicians as it enables to update connection with the government in power. Relational connection is valuable for a firm only when the political regime connected with it gains power.     

Does external uncertainty matter in corporate sustainability performance?

Motivated by the prevalence of corporate sustainability and the rise of uncertainty at the national level, we investigate the impact of three sources of uncertainty; namely, economic policy, climate change, and political instability, on firms' sustainability performance. Using a sample of 6804 firms from 72 countries spanning 15 years, our study revealed that uncertainty due to climate change, economic policy, and political instability negatively affects firms' sustainability performance. This finding is in line with the real options theory that uncertainty in an external environment discourages firms' long-term investment (e.g. investment in corporate sustainability). In addition, the results show that the option for delay in sustainability investment moderated the relation between uncertainty at the national level and firms' sustainability performance. Firms with better sustainability performance had higher firm value when facing uncertainty. Interestingly, firms with higher profitability performed better in sustainability when facing uncertainty at the national level.     

Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Technology Transfer: A Survey

What role does trade play in international technology transfer?Do technologies introduced by multinational firms diffuse tolocal firms? What kinds of policies have proved successful inencouraging technology absorption from abroad and why? Usingthese questions as motivation, this article surveys the recenttrade literature on international technology transfer, payingparticular attention to the role of foreign direct investment.The literature argues that trade necessarily encourages growthonly if knowledge spillovers are international in scope. Empiricalevidence on the scope of knowledge spillovers (national versusinternational) is ambiguous. Several recent empirical plant-levelstudies have questioned earlier studies that argued that foreigndirect investment has a positive impact on the productivityof local firms. Yet at the aggregate level, evidence supportsthe view that foreign direct investment has a positive effecton economic growth in the host country.