IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2201.01160.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The financial value of the within-government political network: Evidence from Chinese municipal corporate bonds

Author

Listed:
  • Jaehyuk Choi
  • Lei Lu
  • Heungju Park
  • Sungbin Sohn

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the political network of Chinese municipal leaders on the pricing of municipal corporate bonds. Using municipal leaders' working experience to measure the political network, we find that this network reduces the bond issuance yield spreads by improving the credit ratings of the issuer, the local government financing vehicle. The relationship between political networks and issuance yield spreads is strengthened in areas where financial markets and legal systems are less developed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaehyuk Choi & Lei Lu & Heungju Park & Sungbin Sohn, 2022. "The financial value of the within-government political network: Evidence from Chinese municipal corporate bonds," Papers 2201.01160, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2201.01160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.01160
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2020. "The financing of local government in China: Stimulus loan wanes and shadow banking waxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 42-71.
    2. Claessens, Stijn & Feijen, Erik & Laeven, Luc, 2008. "Political connections and preferential access to finance: The role of campaign contributions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 554-580, June.
    3. McNally Christopher A, 2011. "China's Changing Guanxi Capitalism: Private Entrepreneurs between Leninist Control and Relentless Accumulation," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-31, August.
    4. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Li-An, 2008. "Political connections, financing and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese private firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 283-299, October.
    5. Li, Zhimin & Cheng, Lei, 2020. "What do private firms do after losing political capital? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Gao, Haoyu & Ru, Hong & Tang, Dragon Yongjun, 2021. "Subnational debt of China: The politics-finance nexus," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 881-895.
    7. Kusnadi, Yuanto, 2019. "Political connections and the value of cash holdings," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 96-102.
    8. Tsai, Li-Chuan & Zhang, Ruhui & Zhao, Cuifang, 2019. "Political connections, network centrality and firm innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 180-184.
    9. Seung Ho Park & Yadong Luo, 2001. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 455-477, May.
    10. Duchin, Ran & Sosyura, Denis, 2012. "The politics of government investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 24-48.
    11. Guo, Di & Jiang, Kun & Kim, Byung-Yeon & Xu, Chenggang, 2014. "Political economy of private firms in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 286-303.
    12. Zhang, Karen & Truong, Cameron, 2019. "What’s the value of politically connected directors?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    13. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Saffar, Walid, 2008. "Political connections of newly privatized firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 654-673, December.
    14. McNally, Christopher A., 2011. "China's Changing Guanxi Capitalism: Private Entrepreneurs between Leninist Control and Relentless Accumulation," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-29, August.
    15. Boubakri, Narjess & Guedhami, Omrane & Mishra, Dev & Saffar, Walid, 2012. "Political connections and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 541-559.
    16. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2005. "Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1371-1411.
    17. Qian, Ningyu, 2018. "Anti-corruption effects on the credit risk of local financing vehicles and the pricing of Chengtou bonds: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 162-168.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Choi, Jaehyuk & Lu, Lei & Park, Heungju & Sohn, Sungbin, 2022. "The financial value of the within-government political network: Evidence from Chinese municipal corporate bonds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    2. repec:zbw:bofitp:2019_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Feng Liu & Hui Lin & Huiying Wu, 2018. "Political Connections and Firm Value in China: An Event Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 551-571, October.
    4. Deng, Yuping & Wu, Yanrui & Xu, Helian, 2019. "Political connections and firm pollution behaviour: An empirical study," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2019, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    5. Yuping Deng & Yanrui Wu & Helian Xu, 2020. "Political Connections and Firm Pollution Behaviour: An Empirical Study," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(4), pages 867-898, April.
    6. Miroslav Palanský, 2021. "The value of political connections in the post-transition period: evidence from Czechia," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(1), pages 121-154, July.
    7. Michelson, Noam, 2023. "The revolving door of former civil servants and firm value: A comprehensive approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. He, Lerong & Wan, Hong & Zhou, Xin, 2014. "How are political connections valued in China? Evidence from market reaction to CEO succession," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 141-152.
    9. Wang, Fangjun & Xu, Luying & Zhang, Junrui & Shu, Wei, 2018. "Political connections, internal control and firm value: Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 53-67.
    10. Thanh Ngo & Jurica Susnjara, 2020. "Government contracts and US bond yield spreads: A study on costs and benefits of materialized political connections," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 1059-1085, July.
    11. Emmanuelle Nys & Amine Tarazi & Irwan Trinugroho, 2013. "Political Connections, Bank Deposits, and Formal Deposit Insurance: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Working Papers hal-00916513, HAL.
    12. Rocca, Maurizio La & Fasano, Francesco & Cappa, Francesco & Neha, Neha, 2022. "The relationship between political connections and firm performance: An empirical analysis in Europe," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    13. Omrane Guedhami & Jeffrey A. Pittman & Walid Saffar, 2014. "Auditor Choice in Politically Connected Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 107-162, March.
    14. Li, Guoping & Zhou, Hong, 2015. "Political connections and access to IPO markets in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 76-93.
    15. Sharma, Piyush & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Leung, T.Y., 2020. "Impact of political connections on Chinese export firms' performance – Lessons for other emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 24-34.
    16. Jackowicz, Krzysztof & Kozłowski, Łukasz & Podgórski, Błażej & Winkler-Drews, Tadeusz, 2020. "Do political connections shield from negative shocks? Evidence from rating changes in advanced emerging economies," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    17. Zhi Wang & Geert Braam & Daniel Reimsbach & Jiaxin Wang, 2020. "Political embeddedness and firms’ choices of earnings management strategies in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(5), pages 4723-4755, December.
    18. Ding, Haoyuan & Hu, Yichuan & Kim, Kenneth A. & Xie, Mi, 2023. "Relationship-based debt financing of Chinese private sector firms: The role of social connections to banks versus political connections," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Zijian Li, 2022. "Government-Enterprise Relation, Financing Plight and Enterprise Growth: Empirical Evidence from World Bank on Chinese Firms," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 24(59), pages 214-214.
    20. Yang, Jin & Huang, Jian & Deng, Yanhua & Bordignon, Massimo, 2020. "The rise of red private entrepreneurs in China: Policy shift, institutional settings and political connection," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    21. Onal, Bunyamin, 2023. "Do politically connected directors play an information role under policy uncertainty?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2201.01160. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.