What explains Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors?—A story of dynamic reciprocal relationship between firms and the government

This paper studies Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors by exploring the dynamic reciprocal relationship between private firms and local governments. By using three waves of a nationwide survey of private firms in 2002, 2004 and 2006 from China, we provide robust evidence that Chinese private entrepreneurs with access to preferential loans from state-owned banks when their businesses first started are more likely to participate in donation and anti-poverty programs organized by the government, and the effects of such loans are more pronounced for small firms and firms in regulated industries. Furthermore, we find that this reciprocal relationship between local governments and private entrepreneurs is a personal relationship rather than an institutional relationship, which declines in importance in areas with better legal institutions and in regions with change of local leadership. Finally, there is evidence that Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors are also motivated by political returns and other individual characteristics.     

The effects of local government leadership turnover on entrepreneurial behavior

The behavior of entrepreneurs is significantly affected by the rules of the game and the behaviors of government officials, because they can affect the relative payoffs to different entrepreneurial activities. Based on a representative survey data of private firms and the information of city government officials in China, this paper shows that the change of key local government officials affects the time allocation of the entrepreneurs, and subsequently the performance of firms. In order to maintain and develop the business-government relationship, entrepreneurs have to allocate less time on productive activities and more time on non-productive activities. This effect is particularly large if 1) entrepreneurs do not have political connections, 2) new officials lack local working experience, 3) private firms belong to special industries, 4) private firms have large number of employees. This paper provides micro-level evidence to Baumol's entrepreneurship allocation theory and a mechanism to account for the observed negative effect of local government leadership turnover on local economic growth in China.     

A springboard into politics: Do Chinese entrepreneurs benefit from joining the government-controlled business associations?

Business associations in authoritarian regimes behave systematically different from their counterparts in democratic regimes. Using a unique dataset of Chinese private firms, this paper examines the impacts of joining the most prominent business association in China, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) which was initiated and strongly controlled by the government. We find that ACFIC members have much higher chances to obtain formal political identities, that is, the deputy of People's Congress (PC) or the People's Political Consultative Conference (PPCC). However, ACFIC membership itself cannot help entrepreneurs acquire scarce resources that are controlled by the government. Rather, ACFIC members bear heavier tax burdens and make more informal payments to government officials. These findings suggest that the ACFIC act as a springboard into politics, rather than an effective collective action committee that can bring common benefits to its members or protect members from government predation.     

Does religion enhance firm performance? Evidence from private firms in China

We study the impact of religiosity on firm performance in China. We find that entrepreneurs with religious beliefs have higher accounting performance. Firms are more likely to obtain bank credit if entrepreneurs have religious beliefs as religiosity stimulate them to invest more in networking, which further enhance the access to bank credit. Religious entrepreneurs have more trust towards external people, which incentivizes them to adopt a shareholding reform and employ external professional CEOs instead of family members, and thus enhances the corporate governance of these firms. In contrast, religious entrepreneurs also prefer family members as shareholders and inheritance of the firm by family members. The preference of inheritance of the firm by family members undermines the enhancing effect of external CEOs on firm performance. Religious entrepreneurs are more likely to spend more on safety insurance for employees, which is driven by the altruism originated from religious doctrines and also the risk aversion channel. The impact of religiosity complements market institutions, and political and social status of the entrepreneurs, which shows the interaction between religion and formal market institutions. We find that it's mainly Buddhism that drives our results, while other religions have limited impact on business activities in the country.     

区域化党建视域下流动党员政党认同现状及提升途径研究——以宁波北仑为例

流动党员个体在政党认同强度上的差别,一定程度上影响着全党政治行为的整合性和驱动力。根据当前流动党员在政党认知、政党情感、政党评价及政党认同的行为四个层面的两面性分析,应从价值内化、情感维系、社会引导等三方面进行运作,以提高流动党员政党认同度。     

新时代民营经济企业家队伍建设：经验成效、当前问题及可能的突破方向

在复杂的国际局势下，虽然民营企业近期发展受挫，但民营企业家队伍仍是推动国家经济持续前行的关键支柱。首先，基于钻石模型剖析十八大以来我国民营企业家队伍在蓬勃发展等四个方面取得的显著成果。其次，利用三角模型对民营企业家队伍建设中的三大问题进行了系统的分析与诊断。最后，从强化民营企业家队伍政治性等六个维度出发，为民营企业家队伍建设提出了具体建议。     

China's entry to the WTO

The paper predicts two possible outcomes of China's accession to the WTO. If this stimulates the initiation of a real constitutional negotiation among different interest groups in China, then China's WTO membership will benefit China as a whole in a profound way. If the ruling party can successfully block the initiation of the constitutional negotiation and carry out a new dual track approach in implementing WTO game rules, then China as a whole may suffer from its WTO membership. The dual track approach may exacerbate inefficient inequality of income distribution, further institutionalise state opportunism and corruption, lower moral standards, and increase social tension that destabilizes China's political system.     

家族企业主的政治联系、制度环境与慈善捐赠——基于全国私营企业调查的实证研究

家族企业的慈善捐赠是中国慈善事业的中坚力量,探究其影响因素对深化理解家族企业行为具有重要价值。文章基于2012年全国私营企业调查数据,采用Tobit回归模型,研究了家族企业主的政治联系、制度环境对慈善捐赠的影响。研究发现家族企业主的政治联系促进慈善捐赠行为,具有政治联系的家族企业主比没有政治联系的家族企业主更多地进行慈善捐赠,政治联系级别越高,慈善捐赠水平也越高。当企业所处地区的制度环境更完善时,政治联系对慈善捐赠的促进作用减弱。文章揭示了家族企业慈善捐赠行为的部分规律,对推动中国慈善事业的发展具有一定的政策含义。     

Did the communists contribute to China’s rural growth?

The communist revolution brought unprecedented changes to China. Yet there is no consensus on its role in the history of China’s modern economic growth. We investigate whether local communist party membership affected developmental outcomes from 1957–78 (the Maoist period) and 1978–85 (the reform period). Focusing on Sichuan, China’s most populous province, we use the Long March as an instrument to tease out causal effects. We find that counties with more communist members made larger strides in educational attainment, road construction, and agricultural mechanization during the Maoist period. However, these counties recorded faster output growth only after 1978. Our findings provide empirical support to field studies conducted by sociologists and historians who argue that the communists improved the organizational infrastructure in China’s countryside. Furthermore, we highlight the futility of solving collective action problems without heeding private incentives.     

Entrepreneurs' work experiences and the growth of Chinese private firms during the transition towards a market economy

This work sheds some light on the influence that entrepreneurs' previous work experiences exerted on the growth performance of Chinese private firms after the privatization reform in the early 2000s. Focusing on a representative and large sample of private firms, the analysis finds evidence of an inferior performance of the companies run by entrepreneurs with past top management experience in state-owned companies, while the superior performance of the companies run by entrepreneurs with prior technical experience. The study investigates specific theory-driven mechanisms through which different experiences impact firm performance, including time allocation and R&D management strategy. Upper echelon theory and imprinting effects appear relevant, and local institutions, political and economic uncertainty, and entrepreneurs' self-perception act as moderating factors. We deal with potential endogeneity issues with propensity score matching and two-stage least squares regression. These findings provide novel evidence on underexplored aspects of the ongoing privatization process in China and other economies in transition.     

非生产性努力、政府规制与私营经济发展

本文认为,地方政府的规制水平不同,使得不同地区私营企业家的非生产性努力程度有差异;在企业家能够自由流动的条件下,规制条件好的地区会对企业家产生集聚效应,促使地区私营经济快速发展;私营企业家的集聚使私营经济的力量得到壮大,更能影响政府的政策和规制条件,因此经济朝着优均衡的状态发展;如果地区私营经济向地方政府寻租,造成偏私性资源配置,那么私营经济发展就会走向劣均衡。     

对私房的社会主义改造(1956～1964年):历史与启示

1956年我国开始对私有住房进行社会主义改造。1964年改造基本结束,城市中大部分私房被纳入社会主义轨道和新建的公房一起,形成了社会主义住房福利体系。这一体系适应了计划经济的需要,改善了大部分城市居民的居住条件,有利于住房问题的解决。本文从住房政治功能角度出发,对私房的社会主义改造这一历史过程进行梳理,通过分析其中的矛盾冲突,得出政府在制定住房政策上,需要把握"民意"和"民益"的平衡;防止住房问题上的极端意识形态化;大力加强政府对住房的保障职能等启示。     

Political connections,corporate innovation and entrepreneurship: Evidence from the China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES)

In this paper, we attempt to reconcile the mixed effects of political connections on corporate innovation. Using the China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES), we find political connections contribute to innovative activities for those firms with innovative entrepreneurs but impedes innovative activities for those without innovative entrepreneurs. After solving the endogeneity problems and correcting the sample selection bias, the baseline results do not change much. Moreover, we find political connections can help firms obtain economic benefits such as tax preference and government subsidies which, however, are utilized by firms to increase fixed asset investment. But such positive effect of political connections on fixed asset investment greatly reduces when the firm's entrepreneur has a strong spirit of innovation. These results provide a reasonable explanation for the change in the direction of the effect of political connections on corporate innovation. This paper succeeds in reconciling the mixed effects of political connections on corporate innovation by taking the entrepreneur's innovative spirit into account.     

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES: CHINA AND INDONESIA COMPARED

China's and Indonesia's development strategies have been compared with others, but rarely with each other. Radically different political contexts have produced both similar and distinctly different development patterns. Each using formal planning, Indonesia spurred radical reforms to promote growth, whereas China opted for incremental reforms to ‘grow out of the Plan’, as a political device and to discover what policies and institutions worked. Both strategies produced environments largely conducive to rapid development. Indonesia relied on a few economic technocrats to oversee development; China used decentralisation and party reforms to create a credible environment for non-state investment. Both shared concern for agricultural reform and food security; both opted to open up for trade—China gradually, Indonesia radically. Both did well in growth and poverty reduction following reform. China's growth performance is in a league of its own, especially since Indonesia's Asian crisis setback, but Indonesia had more equitable growth and survived a difficult political transition with, in hindsight, modest costs.     

Recent Political Change in Myanmar and Its Impact on her Economic Growth

The present study estimates the causal effect of a process of political change, namely, a recent constitutional referendum, on economic growth in Myanmar. To analyze the impact of this process, this study compares the trajectories of actual and counterfactual GDP per capita after the referendum using the synthetic control method. We calculate the counterfactual GDP per capita using country‐level panel data from 2002 to 2013, with Myanmar as the treated country and a set of developing countries in East and South Asia, the Pacific and sub‐Saharan Africa as the control group. The results of the synthetic analysis suggest that the recent process of political change in Myanmar had a positive and significant effect on GDP per capita but not on per capita foreign direct investment or trade.     

Designing the DPD: Indonesia's Regional Representative Council

This paper examines the design of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) that Indonesia set up in 2002. Why was it established with its current electoral system and responsibilities? The design of the DPD had to fit within a compromise made between the two then dominant parties and their leaders. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle wished to preserve the revered People's Consultative Assembly structure, but without losing the power it then wielded by virtue of being the biggest party in the parliament. The other major party, Golkar, obtained the provincial chamber it sought, but was denied control of it when membership was closed to political parties. The public's demand for greater electoral power was appeased through the method of election chosen for the DPD. Institutionally, the design has not made the workings of the legislature more complicated for the established political actors, because the new chamber has little influence.     

政治资本、企业评级与政企纽带

在中国的市场化进程中,各类非市场力量究竟起到了什么作用以及通过哪些渠道去发挥作用的,这是两个极其重要的问题。本文试图从民营企业家的政治身份的回报角度对此进行分析,利用2007年温州市715家民营企业的问卷调查数据,考察了民营企业家的政治资本跟在政府主导下的企业评级结果之间的关系,我们发现：民营企业家的政治资本会显著地影响企业的星级评选结果,进而增强企业跟更高一级政府之间的联系与纽带。这有助于我们更好地理解并把握民营企业家参与政治活动的经济动机。     

服务型党组织：基本内涵、核心价值与实践路径--无锡“三型”党组织建设的启示

作为马克思主义政党,克服“脱离群众的危险”、保持“党与人民群众的血肉联系”是一项关乎党生死存亡的重要使命。要保持“党与人民群众的血肉联系”的政治优势,就必须加强服务型党组织建设。近年来,无锡市在构建基层服务型党组织实践中,其“服务组织-服务党员-服务群众”的成功经验,既有无锡市党组织建设的特殊性,也有“服务型党组织”建设值得借鉴的普遍性。服务型党组织建设,需要以“为人民服务”为根本宗旨,以上级党组织服务下级党组织、党组织服务党员、党的各级组织和党员共同服务人民群众为行为路径,努力保持党的纯洁性、先进性,提高党的建设科学化水平,为群众走基层、讲真话、办实事、服好务。     

在希望的田野上：企业家农村经历与创业行业选择

究竟具备什么样特征的私营企业家更意愿于涉入农业领域创业？基于中国私营企业调查数据,本文研究私营企业家的农村经历特征及其异质性如何影响其创业行业选择的作用机制。结果发现,有农村经历的私营企业家通过发挥其心理偏好认知机制和专业能力认知机制的作用,更倾向于选择进入农业行业创业。为解决内生性问题,基于企业家“是否有过上山下乡经历”构造工具变量,并发现了一致的结果;农村经历的异质性结果显示,相较于农民经历,有村干部经历的私营企业家的这一倾向更为强烈。进一步的分析表明,在农业发展水平较高、政府治理水平较高的地区,上述倾向均具有放大效应;在有农村经历的私营企业家进入农业行业创业后的经济后果方面,其创新投入和融资负债均显著低于无农村经历的样本组。该研究不仅从企业家农村经历视角对高管早期经历文献进行了丰富和拓展,还进一步深化了高管早期经历如何影响企业战略决策的相关文献,亦为企业创业决策领域补充了独特的中国农业农村情境特征。     

Bureaucratic privilege as an issue in Chinese politics

Since December 1978, social policy in China has followed a more openly elitist direction than in any period since 1949. The conservative drift in many policies is unmistakable, but in one respect there is concern — Party opposition to the rapid growth of bureaucratic privilege and abuse of political position. Mao had struck harshly at non-Party intellectuals, urban entrepreneurs, scientists and politically inactive youth. These groups are part of the social base for the new top leadership. A set of demobilizing reforms and purges aimed to route the radical leaders have been ordered by the Deng faction to intimidate their followers, as well as to discredit the mass-campaign style of work in order to replace it with orthodox Party-state structures. Some resistance has followed, but the increasing privatization of the economy created an absolutely larger petty-bourgeoisie which formed a new social layer supporting Deng. Generous back-pay and compensation for those weeded out by the Cultural Revolution gave a material basis for new inequalities. Upper-class communists were once again able to organize privileged, elitist education for their progeny. Finally, economic policy, including the new tolerance of patriotic Hong Kong capitalists, gave a new lease of life to entrepreneurs, some with foreign ties. A coalition of Party bureaucrats, civil servants, academics and businessmen has little time for socialist egalitarianism and Mao's radicalism.