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Politically connected boards, value or cost: evidence from a natural experiment in China

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  • Jianlei Han
  • Guangli Zhang

Abstract

This study investigates the net effect of a politically connected board for a firm. Using a natural experiment in China – a regulatory change to forbid bureaucrats from sitting on the board of public firms – we address the causality of the net effect of a politically connected board by testing the market reaction of the shares of firm targeted by the regulatory change to the policy announcement. The stocks of firms with politically connected directors who are targeted by the regulatory change show on average a significantly positive abnormal return, which suggests that the agency cost effect of a politically connected director dominates the value effect. The result is robust to various model settings and to a matched sample using the propensity score methodology. Additionally, the announcement effect of the resignation of a politically connected director is significantly positive, and significantly higher than that of a non‐connected director. Overall, our results suggest that the agency cost effect of a politically connected director dominates the value effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianlei Han & Guangli Zhang, 2018. "Politically connected boards, value or cost: evidence from a natural experiment in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(1), pages 149-169, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:58:y:2018:i:1:p:149-169
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12215
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jianlei Han & Jing He & Zheyao Pan & Jing Shi, 2018. "Twenty Years of Accounting and Finance Research on the Chinese Capital Market," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 54(4), pages 576-599, December.
    2. Dongmin Kong & Junyi Xiang & Jian Zhang & Yiyang Lu, 2019. "Politically connected independent directors and corporate fraud in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(5), pages 1347-1383, March.
    3. Cynthia W. Cai & Martina K. Linnenluecke & Mauricio Marrone & Abhay K. Singh, 2019. "Machine Learning and Expert Judgement: Analyzing Emerging Topics in Accounting and Finance Research in the Asia–Pacific," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 55(4), pages 709-733, December.
    4. Cheng, Lei, 2022. "Political capital and physical capital: Substitute or complement? Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PB).
    5. Trifonov, Dmitri, 2021. "Political connections of Russian corporations: Blessing or curse?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Otchere, Isaac & Senbet, Lemma W. & Zhu, Pengcheng, 2020. "Does political connection distort competition and encourage corporate risk taking? International evidence," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 21-42.
    8. Wu, Yihan & Dong, Bin, 2021. "The value of independent directors: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    9. Ting Ren & Youzhi Xiao & Xinguo Yu & Hongyan Yang & Jianmei Ge, 2020. "Resignation of officials as independent directors and firm performance," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, December.
    10. Stewart Jones & Nurul Alam, 2019. "A machine learning analysis of citation impact among selected Pacific Basin journals," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(4), pages 2509-2552, December.

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