Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Political connections of newly privatized firms

Contents:

Author Info

  • Boubakri, Narjess
  • Cosset, Jean-Claude
  • Saffar, Walid
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    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.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VFK-4T8SKYT-2/2/59cbf44391b53723278882250a724b5d
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Corporate Finance.

    Volume (Year): 14 (2008)
    Issue (Month): 5 (December)
    Pages: 654-673

    as in new window
    Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:654-673

    Contact details of provider:
    Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin

    Related research

    Keywords: Privatization Political connection Characteristics Performance;

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Joachim Voth & Thomas Ferguson, 2008. "Betting on Hitler: The value of political connections in Nazi Germany," Economics Working Papers 1183, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Djankov, Simeon & La Porta, Rafael & López-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2001. "The Regulation of Entry," CEPR Discussion Papers 2953, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Chutatong Charumilind & Raja Kali & Yupana Wiwattanakantang, 2006. "Connected Lending: Thailand before the Financial Crisis," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 181-218, January.
    4. Nandini Gupta, 2005. "Partial Privatization and Firm Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 987-1015, 04.
    5. Rafael LaPorta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Andrei Shleifer, 2003. "Judicial Checks and Balances," NBER Working Papers 9775, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Barberis, Nicholas & Maxim Boycko & Andrei Shleifer & Natalia Tsukanova, 1996. "How Does Privatization Work? Evidence from the Russian Shops," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 764-90, August.
    7. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743.
    8. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," NBER Working Papers 6625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. John Vickers & George Yarrow, 1988. "Privatization: An Economic Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262720116.
    10. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    11. Agrawal, Anup & Knoeber, Charles R, 2001. "Do Some Outside Directors Play a Political Role?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 179-98, April.
    12. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2005. "Institutions, ownership, and finance: the determinants of profit reinvestment among Chinese firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 117-146, July.
    13. John Vickers & George Yarrow, 1991. "Economic Perspectives on Privatization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 111-132, Spring.
    14. Beck, Thorsten & Cull, Robert & Jerome, Afeikhena, 2005. "Bank privatization and performance: Empirical evidence from Nigeria," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 2355-2379, August.
    15. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Schleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2001. "Investor Protection and Corporate Governance," Working Paper Series rwp01-017, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    16. Maxim Boycko & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1993. "Privatizing Russia," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(2), pages 139-192.
    17. Simon Johnson & Todd Mitton, 2001. "Cronyism and Capital Controls: Evidence from Malaysia," NBER Working Papers 8521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Bernardo Bortolotti & Paolo Pinotti, 2008. "Delayed privatization," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 331-351, September.
    19. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Guedhami, Omrane, 2005. "Postprivatization corporate governance: The role of ownership structure and investor protection," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 369-399, May.
    20. Mauro, Paolo, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712, August.
    21. Manzetti, Luigi, 1994. "The politics of privatization and deregulation in Latin America," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(Supplemen), pages 43-76.
    22. MARA FACCIO & RONALD W. MASULIS & JOHN J. McCONNELL, 2006. "Political Connections and Corporate Bailouts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2597-2635, December.
    23. Villalonga, Belen, 2000. "Privatization and efficiency: differentiating ownership effects from political, organizational, and dynamic effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 43-74, May.
    24. Bortolotti, Bernardo & Siniscalco, Domenico, 2004. "The Challenges of Privatization: An International Analysis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199249343, September.
    25. Faccio, Mara & Lang, Larry H. P., 2002. "The ultimate ownership of Western European corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 365-395, September.
    26. D'Souza, Juliet & Megginson, William & Nash, Robert, 2005. "Effect of institutional and firm-specific characteristics on post-privatization performance: Evidence from developed countries," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 747-766, October.
    27. Jeffry M. Netter & William L. Megginson, 2001. "From State to Market: A Survey of Empirical Studies on Privatization," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 321-389, June.
    28. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Politicians and Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(4), pages 995-1025, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as in new window

    Cited by:
    1. Geys, Benny & Mause, Karsten, 2011. "Moonlighting politicians: A survey and research agenda," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2011-101, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
    2. Carretta, Alessandro & Farina, Vincenzo & Gon, Abhishek & Parisi, Antonio, 2011. "Politicians “on board”! Do political connections affect banking activities in Italy?," MPRA Paper 33549, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Cabeza-García, Laura & Gómez-Ansón, Silvia, 2011. "Post-privatisation ownership concentration: Determinants and influence on firm efficiency," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 412-430, September.
    4. M. Disli & K. Schoors & J. Meir, 2012. "Political connections and depositor discipline," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/781, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    5. Haque, Faizul & Arun, Thankom & Kirkpatrick, Colin, 2011. "The political economy of corporate governance in developing economies: The case of Bangladesh," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 169-182, June.
    6. Sun, Pei & Xu, Haoping & Zhou, Jian, 2011. "The value of local political capital in transition China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 189-192, March.
    7. Anna Menozzi & María Gutierrez Urtiaga & Davide Vannoni, 2010. "Board Composition, Political Connections and Performance in State-Owned Enterprises," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 185, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    8. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Guedhami, Omrane & Saffar, Walid, 2011. "The political economy of residual state ownership in privatized firms: Evidence from emerging markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 244-258, April.
    9. Guedhami, Omrane & Pittman, Jeffrey A. & Saffar, Walid, 2009. "Auditor choice in privatized firms: Empirical evidence on the role of state and foreign owners," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 151-171, December.
    10. Frye, Timothy M. & Iwasaki, Ichiro, 2011. "Government directors and business–state relations in Russia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 642-658.
    11. Boubakri, Narjess & Bouslimi, Lobna, 2010. "Analyst following of privatized firms around the world: The role of institutions and ownership structure," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 413-442, December.
    12. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Guedhami, Omrane, 2009. "From state to private ownership: Issues from strategic industries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 367-379, February.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:654-673

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wendy Shamier).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.