Political Connections and Related Party Transactions: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper examines whether politically connected firms use related party transactions as a tunneling mechanism in Indonesia. We further investigate whether the presence of tunneling compels managers to manage earnings to conceal such expropriation of resources. Our study is motivated by conflicting evidence in the extant literature about the role of political connections and related party transactions. Using data from Indonesia, we document that politically connected firms use related party loans to tunnel resources, and that this effect is more pronounced for firms with government connections. We further document that politically connected firms manage earnings to conceal their tunneling activities. By documenting the role of related party transactions as a specific channel through which connected firms expropriate resources, we enrich the political connection and related party transactions literature.     

The role of political uncertainty in Australian financial markets

Within the developed world, recent Australian political history is uniquely turbulent. This situation invokes indecision regarding investment decisions in both the real economy and the financial markets. This paper explores the relationship between uncertainty in Australian federal election polling and resulting financial market uncertainty. Empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election result induce higher (lower) levels of uncertainty in financial markets. The effect is more pronounced as polling day approaches. Industry‐level analysis suggests that the base materials sector is most significantly affected by election uncertainty in Australia.     

非正规部门竞争、政治寻租与新创企业市场创新

市场创新是新创企业生存发展的根本,然而新兴经济体背景下新创企业的市场创新受到多种特定因素的影响。基于制度基础观,利用世界银行中国企业调查数据,实证考察了非正规部门竞争和政治寻租对新创企业市场创新的影响。研究发现,非正规部门竞争和政治寻租均对新创企业的市场创新具有显著的正向影响,但政治寻租未强化非正规部门竞争对企业市场创新的正向影响;非正规竞争导致的对知识产权保护的需求并非是引致新创企业进行政治寻租的主要原因,资金需求和躲避严苛繁琐的政府管制的需要是引诱企业参与政治寻租的主要原因。因此,政策制定者不必过分担忧非正规部门竞争对新创企业的负面影响,而应通过推进企业注册登记便利化和加强知识产权保护逐步消除非正规经济;要通过持续深化市场化改革和简政放权消除企业寻租的动机。     

Political Stock Markets and Unreliable Polls

A political stock market (PSM) clearly beat the polls in predicting the outcome of a Swedish referendum on whether or not Sweden should join the European Union. In fact, polls were unable to make such predictions since the number of undecided respondents always far exceeded the observed YES/NO margin. However, an obstacle to PSMs serving as a superior forecasting instrument is that they can be sensitive to price distortions - by interest groups that may wish to effectuate, and pay for, such distortions - or forecast competitions tied to PSM trade gains, the latter of which was tested here.     

The effect of political visibility on audit effort and audit pricing

This study examines whether auditors adjust their effort and pricing decisions for political visibility. We argue, from the behavioural literature, that political visibility will create the need for more justification by auditors. Using data on actual audit fees, hours and billing rates for a sample of New Zealand public sector companies, we find that total audit fees are positively related to the number of press mentions (our proxy for political visibility). Consistent with our expectations we find that audit fees are monotonically related to audit fees. We also find that auditors increase the hours spent on the audit but not billing rates, which further suggests defensive bolstering by auditors.     

唐代山东农业经济发展的政治环境及其影响

政治与经济是互动的,政治对经济有反作用,古代社会尤其如此。唐代以安史之乱为界点,其政治分为贞观、开元时期和安史之乱后两个阶段。前者政治清明,表现在中央派遣观察使、实施宽刑减罚的政策和稳固农业发展的措施等,促进了山东农业经济的发展和繁荣;后者政治环境恶劣,表现在中央权力削弱、藩镇割据局面形成、藩镇间的不断战争以及农民战争的爆发等,致使山东农业经济遭到破坏,恢复发展缓慢。     

Role of multidimensional customer brand engagement on customer behavior for online grocery shopping

This study aims to understand the relationship between environmental consciousness and multidimensional (i.e., cognition, affection, and activation aspects) of customer brand engagement (CBE) in relation to online grocery shopping. It also investigates the moderating effect of customer characteristics on the associations among environmental consciousness, CBE, and behavior intention. 358 Korean respondents took part in this research using an online survey to assess the impacts of multidimensional CBE for online grocery. The outcomes reveal that environmental consciousness positively influences cognition and activation aspects of CBE. Additionally, activation, affection, and cognition aspects of CBE positively affect behavioral intention. Multi-group analysis is performed to identify the difference among customers in low and high customer characteristics. In addition, by demonstrating a role for CBE, this study adds to the existing literature on online grocery. Furthermore, the outcomes of this research provide direction for building marketing strategies for online groceries for marketers and practitioners.     

Political openness and armed conflict: Evidence from local councils in Colombia

In this paper, I empirically investigate how the openness of political institutions to diverse representation can impact conflict-related violence. Regression discontinuity estimates that exploit plausibly exogenous variations in the number of councillors in Colombian municipalities show that political openness substantially decreases conflict-related violence, namely the killing of civilian non-combatants. Empirical evidence suggests that the lower level of political violence stems from parties with close links to armed groups having greater representation on larger municipal councils. Using data about the types of violence employed by these groups, and government representation, I argue that armed violence has decreased not because of power-sharing arrangements involving armed groups linked to the parties with more political representation, but rather because armed groups with more political power deter other groups from initiating certain types of violence.     

Changing EU agricultural policy discourses? The discourse analysis of Commissioner’s speeches 2000–2007

This paper is a combination of political economy and critical discourse analysis of public texts about the common agricultural policy (CAP) by concerned agents and the EU’s agricultural Commissioner in the period of November, 2004 until October, 2007. The analysis reveals how concerned agents articulated three competing discourses (neomercantilism, multifunctionality, and neoliberalism). It also shows that elements of the discourse of neoliberalism in the Commissioner’s speeches, despite her use of different discourses for different audiences, are becoming more and more important in order to facilitate further reforms and liberalisation of the CAP.     

援助之手还是攫取之手？——关于中国式分权的一个假说及其验证

中国式分权的核心内涵是“政治集权”与“经济分权”的紧密结合。“政治集权”下主要基于相对经济绩效的晋升考核制度是地方政府激励的基本源泉;“经济分权”则给予了地方政府必要的资源支配权以保障这种激励效应的有效性。本文在将地区要素禀赋差异约束纳入模型后得出的基本推论是,“政治集权”下的“经济分权”将会加剧地方政府为谋求私人利益的“攫取之手”行为。我们以1998—2006年省级面板数据为样本的计量检验结果也发现了财政分权指标与腐败水平之间的正相关关系,并且,这个发现是比较稳健的,这在一定程度上证实了本文的理论推断。