IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/asieco/v89y2023ics1049007823000702.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Returning the favor: Official consumption and government–company reciprocity

Author

Listed:
  • Tong, Zefeng
  • Qi, Yu
  • Wei, Yongchang
  • Lin, Jiaying
  • Zhuang, Jingyi

Abstract

Official behavior is an important factor affecting company development in developing countries. This paper investigates the government-company reciprocity and its impact on company performance in China. We empirically analyze the government-company reciprocity behind local official consumption by matching unique data of the “three public expenses” collected manually at prefecture-level cities with data of listed companies. The results demonstrate a trade-off relationship between local official consumption and business entertainment expenses of companies, which manifests in the transfer of official consumption burden to companies. This transfer effect mainly exists in private companies and regions with non-diverse dialects. The results also reveal that companies paying for the consumption for local officials receive more subsidies and credit support. However, such reciprocity does not improve company performance. This study contributes to the literature related to government-company relationships and corruption by identifying the relationship between company bribery, government-company reciprocity, and company development in emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Tong, Zefeng & Qi, Yu & Wei, Yongchang & Lin, Jiaying & Zhuang, Jingyi, 2023. "Returning the favor: Official consumption and government–company reciprocity," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:89:y:2023:i:c:s1049007823000702
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2023.101650
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007823000702
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.asieco.2023.101650?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qian, Yingyi & Roland, Gerard, 1998. "Federalism and the Soft Budget Constraint," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1143-1162, December.
    2. Firth, Michael & Lin, Chen & Liu, Ping & Wong, Sonia M.L., 2009. "Inside the black box: Bank credit allocation in China's private sector," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1144-1155, June.
    3. Shawn Cole, 2009. "Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 219-250, January.
    4. Lin William Cong & Haoyu Gao & Jacopo Ponticelli & Xiaoguang Yang, 2019. "Credit Allocation Under Economic Stimulus: Evidence from China," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(9), pages 3412-3460.
    5. Haiyang Li & Yan Zhang, 2007. "The role of managers' political networking and functional experience in new venture performance: Evidence from China's transition economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 791-804, August.
    6. Cull, Robert & Li, Wei & Sun, Bo & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2015. "Government connections and financial constraints: Evidence from a large representative sample of Chinese firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 271-294.
    7. Chong-en Bai & Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng Song, 2020. "Special Deals with Chinese Characteristics," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 341-379.
    8. Eitan Goldman & Jörg Rocholl & Jongil So, 2009. "Do Politically Connected Boards Affect Firm Value?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2331-2360, June.
    9. Harrison, Ann E. & Lin, Justin Yifu & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2014. "Explaining Africa’s (Dis)advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 59-77.
    10. Hongbin Cai & Hanming Fang & Lixin Colin Xu, 2011. "Eat, Drink, Firms, Government: An Investigation of Corruption from the Entertainment and Travel Costs of Chinese Firms," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 55-78.
    11. Fligstein, Neil & Zhang, Jianjun, 2011. "A New Agenda for Research on the Trajectory of Chinese Capitalism," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 39-62, March.
    12. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Saffar, Walid, 2008. "Political connections of newly privatized firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 654-673, December.
    13. Zhang, Jianjun & Sun, Pei & Qiao, Kunyuan, 2020. "Wining and Dining Government Officials: What Drives Political Networking in Chinese Private Ventures?," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 1084-1113, December.
    14. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2008. "Why Is Rent-Seeking So Costly to Growth?," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Kai A. Konrad & Arye L. Hillman (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 2, pages 213-218, Springer.
    15. Sandip Sukhtankar, 2012. "Sweetening the Deal? Political Connections and Sugar Mills in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 43-63, July.
    16. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    17. Portes, Richard & Rey, Helene & Oh, Yonghyup, 2001. "Information and capital flows: The determinants of transactions in financial assets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 783-796, May.
    18. Audinga Baltrunaite, 2020. "Political Contributions and Public Procurement: Evidence from Lithuania," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 541-582.
    19. Douglas A. Schuler & Wei Shi & Robert E. Hoskisson & Tao Chen, 2017. "Windfalls of emperors' sojourns: Stock market reactions to Chinese firms hosting high-ranking government officials," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(8), pages 1668-1687, August.
    20. Frye, Timothy & Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 354-358, May.
    21. 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.
    22. Qi, Yu & Yu, Jinliang & Yang, Shubo & Xie, Xiaoyi, 2022. "Local government consumption and firm performance: Evidence from the "TPCs" in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    23. Chen, Yunling & Liu, Ming & Su, Jun, 2013. "Greasing the wheels of bank lending: Evidence from private firms in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2533-2545.
    24. Jianjun Zhang & Christopher Marquis & Kunyuan Qiao, 2016. "Do Political Connections Buffer Firms from or Bind Firms to the Government? A Study of Corporate Charitable Donations of Chinese Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1307-1324, October.
    25. Emmanuel Cleeve, 2008. "How effective are fiscal incentives to attract FDI to Sub-Saharan Africa?," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 42(1), pages 135-153, September.
    26. Evelina Tainer, 1988. "English Language Proficiency and the Determination of Earnings among Foreign-Born Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(1), pages 108-122.
    27. Lei, Yu-Hsiang, 2021. "Quid pro quo? Government-firm relationships in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    28. Mara Faccio, 2006. "Politically Connected Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 369-386, March.
    29. Wang, Qian & Wong, T.J. & Xia, Lijun, 2008. "State ownership, the institutional environment, and auditor choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 112-134, September.
    30. He, Lerong & Wan, Hong & Zhou, Xin, 2014. "How are political connections valued in China? Evidence from market reaction to CEO succession," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 141-152.
    31. Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1994. "Politicians and Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 995-1025.
    32. Raymond Fisman, 2001. "Estimating the Value of Political Connections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1095-1102, September.
    33. Gallagher, Kelly Sims, 2006. "Limits to leapfrogging in energy technologies? Evidence from the Chinese automobile industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 383-394, March.
    34. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Lei, Yu-Hsiang, 2021. "Quid pro quo? Government-firm relationships in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    2. Saibal Ghosh, 2023. "Political connections and bank behaviour," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 52(1), February.
    3. Jia, Ning & Mao, Xinshu & Yuan, Rongli, 2019. "Political connections and directors' and officers' liability insurance – Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 353-372.
    4. Weiting Zheng & Kulwant Singh & Will Mitchell, 2015. "Buffering and enabling: The impact of interlocking political ties on firm survival and sales growth," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1615-1636, November.
    5. Cull, Robert & Li, Wei & Sun, Bo & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2015. "Government connections and financial constraints: Evidence from a large representative sample of Chinese firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 271-294.
    6. Park, SeHyun, 2023. "Profitability of politically corrupt firms: Evidence from Romania," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    7. Karami, Gholamreza & Mehrani, Sasan & Beik Boshrouyeh, Salman & Ezadpour, Mostafa & Mohebbi, Masoud & Samavat, Milad, 2024. "Political connections and labor investment efficiency," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 568-580.
    8. Tian, Yunlin & Pan, Xiaofei & Pang, Baoqing & Wu, Yiping, 2023. "Political career concerns and bank lending in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Yu, Xin & Zheng, Ying, 2019. "The value of political ties for firms experiencing enforcement actions: Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 24-45.
    11. 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.
    12. Lin, Gaoyi & Xu, Changtuo & Chen, Hailin & Tang, Kai, 2024. "The effect of government-firm relationship on pollution reduction: The role of official performance appraisal," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Qu Deng & Hezun Li & Hong Yue, 2024. "Public–private partnership, cost of debt and accounting conservatism," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 432-482, March.
    14. Deng, Jiapin & Lu, Di, 2024. "The Old Boys’ Club and Board Gender Diversity: Evidence from the Anti-corruption Campaign in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 626-656.
    15. Zhang, Wei & Xiong, Xiong & Wang, Guanying & Li, Chunxia, 2022. "Corporate ownership and political connections: Evidence from post-IPO long term performance in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Zhaohua Li & Xiaofei Pan, 2023. "Relationship investment and local corruption environment: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4597-4628, December.
    17. Liu, Li & Liu, Qigui & Tian, Gary & Wang, Peipei, 2018. "Government connections and the persistence of profitability: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 110-129.
    18. Jiang, Haiyan & Hu, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Honghui & Zhou, Donghua, 2018. "Benefits of Downward Earnings Management and Political Connection: Evidence from Government Subsidy and Market Pricing," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 255-273.
    19. Zhi Wang & Miao Yu, 2022. "Political embeddedness and firms' growth," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 127-153, February.
    20. Xie, Sujuan & Lin, Bingxuan & Li, Jingjing, 2022. "Political Control, Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Case of China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    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:eee:asieco:v:89:y:2023:i:c:s1049007823000702. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/asieco .

    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.