IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15982-d1280991.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Political Connection and Environmental Protection Investment: A Study Based on Ownership Difference

Author

Listed:
  • Yunfei Qi

    (School of Accounting, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China)

  • Chengzhi Niu

    (School of Accounting, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China)

  • Hong He

    (School of Accounting, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China)

Abstract

Using data from listed firms in the pollution-intensive industries in China from 2009 to 2019 and taking into account ownership differences, our study examines the causal effect of political connections on environmental protection investment behavior. To deal with the potential endogeneity concern, we created a quasi-natural experiment based on an anti-corruption campaign in China that prohibited officials from holding business positions. Our results indicate that political connections increase environmental protection investment in state-owned firms, primarily when the politically connected director (is affiliated) participates in the firm’s daily operations. However, in non-state-owned firms, political connections hinder environmental protection investment, and, furthermore, investment decreases as the administration level of the politically connected directors increases. Additionally, we also found that local regulatory intensity strengthens the impact of political connections on environmental protection investment. While the study uses China’s firms as the sample, the findings may also apply to other emerging economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunfei Qi & Chengzhi Niu & Hong He, 2023. "Political Connection and Environmental Protection Investment: A Study Based on Ownership Difference," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-25, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15982-:d:1280991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15982/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15982/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sihai Li & Xianzhong Song & Huiying Wu, 2015. "Political Connection, Ownership Structure, and Corporate Philanthropy in China: A Strategic-Political Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 399-411, June.
    2. Wayne B. Gray & Ronald J. Shadbegian, 1998. "Environmental Regulation, Investment Timing, and Technology Choice," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 235-256, June.
    3. Burak Güner, A. & Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Financial expertise of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 323-354, May.
    4. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & Alexei V. Ovtchinnikov, 2010. "Corporate Political Contributions and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 687-724, April.
    5. Hermalin, Benjamin E & Weisbach, Michael S, 1998. "Endogenously Chosen Boards of Directors and Their Monitoring of the CEO," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 96-118, March.
    6. Joseph P. H. Fan & T. J. Wong & Tianyu Zhang, 2013. "Institutions and Organizational Structure: The Case of State-Owned Corporate Pyramids," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(6), pages 1217-1252, December.
    7. Chen, Shimin & Sun, Zheng & Tang, Song & Wu, Donghui, 2011. "Government intervention and investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 259-271, April.
    8. Boycko, Maxim & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1996. "A Theory of Privatisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 309-319, March.
    9. John A. Pearce & Shaker A. Zahra, 1991. "The relative power of ceos and boards of directors: Associations with corporate performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 135-153, February.
    10. Mike W. Peng, 2004. "Outside directors and firm performance during institutional transitions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 453-471, May.
    11. Jerry Goodstein & Kanak Gautam & Warren Boeker, 1994. "The effects of board size and diversity on strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 241-250, March.
    12. Eric Maskin & Chenggang Xu, 2001. "Soft budget constraint theories: From centralization to the market," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, March.
    13. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    14. Boone, Audra L. & Casares Field, Laura & Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Raheja, Charu G., 2007. "The determinants of corporate board size and composition: An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 66-101, July.
    15. Gray, Wayne B & Shadbegian, Ronald J, 1998. "Environmental Regulation, Investment Timing, and Technology Choice," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 235-256, June.
    16. Fan, Joseph P.H. & Rui, Oliver Meng & Zhao, Mengxin, 2008. "Public governance and corporate finance: Evidence from corruption cases," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 343-364, September.
    17. Swarnodeep Homroy & Aurelie Slechten, 2019. "Do Board Expertise and Networked Boards Affect Environmental Performance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 269-292, August.
    18. Jiang, Zhenyu & Wang, Zongjun & Lan, Xiao, 2021. "How environmental regulations affect corporate innovation? The coupling mechanism of mandatory rules and voluntary management," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    19. Jakob Arnoldi & Yulia Muratova, 2019. "Unrelated acquisitions in China: The role of political ownership and political connections," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 113-134, March.
    20. Sheng,Yumin, 2010. "Economic Openness and Territorial Politics in China," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521195386.
    21. John Maxwell & Christopher Decker, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Investment and Responsive Regulation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 33(4), pages 425-439, April.
    22. Goyal, Sanjeev & Vega-Redondo, Fernando, 2007. "Structural holes in social networks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 460-492, November.
    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. Berger, Allen N. & Kick, Thomas & Schaeck, Klaus, 2014. "Executive board composition and bank risk taking," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    2. repec:tur:wpaper:9 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Neeraj Gupta & Jitendra Mahakud, 2020. "CEO characteristics and bank performance: evidence from India," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1057-1093, August.
    4. Renee B. Adams & Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2010. "The Role of Boards of Directors in Corporate Governance: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 58-107, March.
    5. Deng, Yuping & Wu, Yanrui & Xu, Helian, 2019. "Political turnover and firm pollution discharges: An empirical study," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    6. Nguyen, Tuan & Nguyen, An & Nguyen, Mau & Truong, Thuyen, 2021. "Is national governance quality a key moderator of the boardroom gender diversity–firm performance relationship? International evidence from a multi-hierarchical analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 370-390.
    7. Reeb, David & Upadhyay, Arun, 2010. "Subordinate board structures," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 469-486, September.
    8. Jason R. V. Franken & Michael L. Cook, 2019. "Do Corporate Governance Recommendations Apply to U.S. Agricultural Cooperatives?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, September.
    9. Hui-Fun Yu & Tsui-Jung Lin & Hai-Yen Chang & Yu-Huai Wang, 2020. "The Impact of Political Connection and Information Asymmetry on Investment Efficiency: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-15, July.
    10. Yu, Zhen & Shen, Yiran & Jiang, Shengjun, 2022. "The effects of corporate governance uncertainty on state-owned enterprises' green innovation in China: Perspective from the participation of non-state-owned shareholders," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    11. Naeem Tabassum & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Organisational Performance," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-48527-6, December.
    12. repec:zbw:bofitp:2019_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Mollah, Sabur & Liljeblom, Eva & Mobarek, Asma, 2021. "Heterogeneity in independent non-executive directors' attributes and risk-taking in large banks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Lee, Wei-Ming, 2020. "The determinants and effects of board committees," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Yunhe Li & Faqin Lan, 2021. "The determinants of adjustment speed of board structure: evidence from Chinese listed companies," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 725-753, April.
    16. Huang, Peng & Lu, Yue & Wu, Ji, 2023. "Does board diversity in industry-experience boost firm value? The role of corporate innovation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Wei Wei & Yulia Muratova, 2022. "Executive power and politically connected independent directors: evidence from China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 1-24, February.
    18. Madhu Khanna & George Deltas & Donna Harrington, 2009. "Adoption of Pollution Prevention Techniques: The Role of Management Systems and Regulatory Pressures," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 44(1), pages 85-106, September.
    19. Li, Yong & Aguilera, Ruth V., 2008. "Target Director Turnover in Acquisitions: A Conceptual Framework," Working Papers 08-0106, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    20. 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.
    21. Yong Li & Ruth V. Aguilera, 2008. "Target Director Turnover in Acquisitions: A Conceptual Framework," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(6), pages 492-503, November.
    22. Estélyi, Kristína Sághy & Nisar, Tahir M., 2016. "Diverse boards: Why do firms get foreign nationals on their boards?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 174-192.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15982-:d:1280991. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.