IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/exe/wpaper/2303.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The consequence of societal secrecy for financial constraints

Author

Listed:
  • Olayinka Oyekola

    (Department of Economics, University of Exeter)

  • Samuel Odewunmi

    (Department of Economics, University of Exeter)

Abstract

Does the level of societal secrecy aggravate or alleviate access to finance? We explore this question for over 50,000 firms in around 40, predominantly developing, countries, from 2006 to 2015. We find a strong positive relationship between cultural orientation towards secrecy in a country and financial constraints faced by its firms. Our results are robust to several considerations and emphasise the adverse consequence of societal secrecy for perpetuating financing obstacles for firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Olayinka Oyekola & Samuel Odewunmi, 2023. "The consequence of societal secrecy for financial constraints," Discussion Papers 2303, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:exe:wpaper:2303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://exetereconomics.github.io/RePEc/dpapers/DP2303.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claessens, Stijn & Feijen, Erik & Laeven, Luc, 2008. "Political connections and preferential access to finance: The role of campaign contributions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 554-580, June.
    2. Erel, Isil & Liebersohn, Jack, 2022. "Can FinTech reduce disparities in access to finance? Evidence from the Paycheck Protection Program," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 90-118.
    3. Knetsch, Andreas & Salzmann, Astrid, 2022. "Societal trust and corporate underinvestment," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2005. "Institutions, ownership, and finance: the determinants of profit reinvestment among Chinese firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 117-146, July.
    5. Chu, Angus C. & Kou, Zonglai & Wang, Xilin, 2022. "Culture and stages of economic development," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    6. Makrychoriti, Panagiota & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2021. "National culture and central bank transparency: Cross-country evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    7. Bose, Udichibarna & Mallick, Sushanta & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2020. "Does easing access to foreign financing matter for firm performance?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Leon, Florian, 2015. "Does bank competition alleviate credit constraints in developing countries?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 130-142.
    9. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    10. Chen, Yangyang & Chui, Andy C.W. & Goyal, Abhinav & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2022. "Societal secrecy and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Pantelis C. Kostis, 2021. "Culture, innovation, and economic development," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olayinka Oyekola & Martha A. Omolo & Olapeju C. Ogunmokun, 2023. "Are majority-female-owned firms more susceptible to bribery solicitations?," Discussion Papers 2311, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    2. Machokoto, Michael, 2024. "The impact of cultural orientation towards secrecy on innovation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).

    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. Oyekola, Olayinka & Odewunmi, Samuel, 2023. "The consequence of societal secrecy for the financial constraints faced by firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    2. Olayinka Oyekola & Sofia Johan & Rilwan Sakariyahu & Oluwatoyin Esther Dosumu & Shima Amini, 2023. "Political institutions, financial liberalisation, and access to finance: firm-level empirical evidence," Discussion Papers 2307, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    3. Fang,Sheng & Goh,Chorching & Roberts,Mark & Xu,L. Colin & Zeufack,Albert G., 2020. "Female Business Leaders, Business and Cultural Environment, and Productivity around the World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9275, The World Bank.
    4. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Leung, T.Y., 2016. "Government protection, political connection and management turnover in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 160-176.
    5. Shaorou Hu & Ming Liu & Nan Liu & Xialin Guo, 2024. "Do State Ownership and Political Connections Affect Precautionary Cash Holdings for Customer Concentration? Evidence from China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 60(2), pages 305-337, June.
    6. Cull,Robert J. & Gan,Li & Gao,Nan & Xu,L. Colin & Cull,Robert J. & Gan,Li & Gao,Nan & Xu,L. Colin, 2015. "Dual credit markets and household access to finance : evidence from a representative Chinese household survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7454, The World Bank.
    7. Yan Leung Cheung & P. Raghavendra Rau & Aris Stouraitis, 2012. "How much do firms pay as bribes and what benefits do they get? Evidence from corruption cases worldwide," NBER Working Papers 17981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. 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.
    9. Ishac Diwan & Philip Keefer & Marc Schiffbauer, 2020. "Pyramid capitalism: Cronyism, regulation, and firm productivity in Egypt," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 211-246, January.
    10. Wang, Fangjun & Xu, Luying & Zhang, Junrui & Shu, Wei, 2018. "Political connections, internal control and firm value: Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 53-67.
    11. Haitian Lu & Hongbo Pan & Chenying Zhang, 2015. "Political Connectedness and Court Outcomes: Evidence from Chinese Corporate Lawsuits," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4).
    12. Halford, Joseph T. & Li, Chengcheng, 2020. "Political connections and debt restructurings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. Wang, Xia & Feng, Mingming & Xu, Xiaodong, 2019. "Political connections of independent directors and firm internationalization: An empirical study of Chinese listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. Wei, Chunyan & Hu, Shiyang & Chen, Feng, 2020. "Do political connection disruptions increase labor costs in a government-dominated market? Evidence from publicly listed companies in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Xu, Nianhang & Chen, Qinyuan & Xu, Yan & Chan, Kam C., 2016. "Political uncertainty and cash holdings: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 276-295.
    16. 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.
    17. Polsiri, Piruna & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2012. "Political connections, ownership structure, and financial institution failure," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 39-53.
    18. Diwan, Ishac & Jamal Ibrahim Haidar, "undated". "Do Political Connections Reduce Job Creation? Evidence from Lebanon," Working Paper 414186, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    19. Titl, Vitezslav & Geys, Benny, 2019. "Political donations and the allocation of public procurement contracts," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 443-458.
    20. Banerjee, Rajabrata & Gupta, Kartick & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, 2022. "Does corrupt practice increase the implied cost of equity?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial constraints; access to credit; societal secrecy; national culture; firm-level data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:exe:wpaper:2303. 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: Sebastian Kripfganz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deexeuk.html .

    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.