Political connections and corporate financial decision making

Date published

2018-11-16

Free to read from

Supervisor/s

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer

Department

Type

Article

ISSN

0924-865X

Format

Citation

Belghitar Y, Clark E, Saeed A. (2019) Political connections and corporate financial decision making. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Volume 53, Issue 4, November 2019, pp. 1099-1133

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and how political connections influence managerial financial decisions. Our study reveals that those firms that have a politician on its board of directors are highly leveraged, use more long-term debt, hold large excess cash and are associated with low quality financial reporting compared to their non-connected counterparts. These effects escalate with the strength of the connected politician and whether he or his party is in power. The winning party effect is observed to be stronger than victory by the politician himself. Overall, our paper provides strong evidence that political connection is a two-edged sword. It is indeed a valuable resource for connected firms, but it comes at a cost of higher agency problems.

Description

Software Description

Software Language

Github

Keywords

Political connection, Earnings management, Financial policies, Emerging market

DOI

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Relationships

Relationships

Supplements

Funder/s