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The Economics of Politically Connected Firms

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Author Info
Jay Pil Choi ()
Marcel Thum ()

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Abstract

Political connections between firms and autocratic regimes are not secret and often even publicly displayed in many developing economies. We argue that tying a firm’s available rent to a regime’s survival acts as a credible commitment forcing entrepreneurs to support the government and to exert effort in its stabilization. In return, politically connected firms get access to profitable markets and are exempted from the regime’s extortion. We show that such a gift exchange between government and politically connected firms can only exist if certain institutional conditions are met. In particular, the stability of the regime has to be sufficiently low and the regime needs the power to exploit independent firms. We also show that building up a network of politically connected firms acts as a substitute for investments in autonomous stability (such as spending on military and police force). The indirect strategy of stabilizing a regime via politically connected firms gradually becomes inferior when a regime’s exploitative power rises.

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File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/DocCIDL/cesifo1_wp2025.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 2025.

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Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2025

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Related research
Keywords: politically connected firms; clientelism; political stability;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion
H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Mara Faccio, 2006. "Politically Connected Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 369-386, March. [Downloadable!]
  2. Kurer, Oskar, 1993. " Clientelism, Corruption, and the Allocation of Resources," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 259-73, October.
  3. Ferguson, Thomas & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2005. "Betting on Hitler - The Value of Political Connections in Nazi Germany," CEPR Discussion Papers 5021, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Robinson, James A & Verdier, Thierry, 2002. "The Political Economy of Clientelism," CEPR Discussion Papers 3205, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Jay Pil Choi & Marcel Thum, 2004. "The Economics of Repeated Extortion," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(2), pages 203-223, Summer.
    Other versions:
  6. Raymond Fisman, 2001. "Estimating the Value of Political Connections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1095-1102, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Agrawal, Anup & Knoeber, Charles R, 2001. "Do Some Outside Directors Play a Political Role?," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 179-98, April.
  8. Choi, Jay Pil & Thum, Marcel, 2003. "The dynamics of corruption with the ratchet effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 427-443, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Faccio, Mara & Parsley, Davie, 2007. "Sudden Deaths: Taking Stock of Geographic Ties," MPRA Paper 6042, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2005. "Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 120(4), pages 1371-1411, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Alberto Chong & Mark Gradstein, 2007. "On the Determinants and Effects of Political Influence," RES Working Papers 4540, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  12. Johnson, Simon & Mitton, Todd, 2003. "Cronyism and capital controls: evidence from Malaysia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 351-382, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Alberto Chong & Mark Gradstein, 2007. "Sobre los determinantes y efectos de la influencia de politica (On the Determinants and Effects of Political Influence)," RES Working Papers 4541, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  2. Yakovlev, Andrei, 2009. "State-business relations and improvement of corporate governance in Russia," BOFIT Discussion Papers 26/2008, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition. [Downloadable!]
  3. Alberto Chong & Mark Gradstein, 2007. "On the Determinants and Effects of Political Influence," RES Working Papers 4540, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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