Beyond Political Connections: A Measurement Model Approach to Estimating Firm-Level Political Influence in 41 Economies

Estimating the Value of Political Connections

As the Indonesian economy went into a downward spiral in the latter half of 1997, there was much speculation and debate as to the reasons behind the sudden decline. Most explanations gave at least some role to investor panic, which had led to a massive outflow of foreign capital. At the root of this hysteria, however, were concerns that the capital that had flowed into Indonesia and elsewhere i...

Red Capitalists: Political Connections and Firm Performance in China

Uncertainty in the policy making process creates substantial transaction costs for firms (Williamson, 1991; Henisz andZelner, 2004). Consequently, business organisations engage in political behaviour to internalise these costs and influence the policy process in ways favourable to them. The current paper is concerned with a particular form of political strategy adopted by firms in China. A sign...

Foundations of Political Economies

Functioning oF Political economies

For most of the 1990s, many analysts focused their attention on determining the circumstances under which a particular set of economic policies could be implemented in a post-communist state. Although that research agenda led to important breakthroughs regarding the importance of “first-round winners” in post-communist states and the short-run compatibility of democratization and marketization,...

Corporate governance as political insurance: firm-level institutional creation in emerging markets and beyond

What do we know about the politics of corporate governance in emerging markets? Although the state-level institutions have been amply explored, firmlevel dynamics remain under-theorized. Complementing the orthodox emphasis on external finance as causal force behind the adoption of ‘minority shareholder protections’, the article outlines an alternative mechanism for firms operating in political ...