Disappearing position-related consumption: Firm bribery and government-firm reciprocity

IF 5.6 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2025-05-30 DOI:10.1016/j.iref.2025.104215

Zefeng Tong , Jia Liu , Dongmin Kong , Yu Qi , Fei Zhou

{"title":"Disappearing position-related consumption: Firm bribery and government-firm reciprocity","authors":"Zefeng Tong , Jia Liu , Dongmin Kong , Yu Qi , Fei Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104215","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the ethical implications of government-firm reciprocity in the absence of election incentives and its impact on firm performance. Using hand-collected data of the position-related consumption of local officials during 2013–2017 in China, we investigate the relationship between this practice and corporate bribery. The results show that the reduction in the budget of position-related consumption leads to an increase in firms’ business entertainment expenses. Firms pay for the personal consumption of local officials through business entertainment expenses, which essentially represents a bribe to local officials. Further analysis indicates that firms bribing local officials receive more government subsidies and preferential tax deductions. However, such reciprocity does not improve firm performance. This study examines the interplay of covert bribery and unethical corporate favoritism, contributing to the business ethics and corruption literature by identifying the relationship between firm venality, government-firm reciprocity, and firm development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 104215"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Review of Economics & Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025003788","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper examines the ethical implications of government-firm reciprocity in the absence of election incentives and its impact on firm performance. Using hand-collected data of the position-related consumption of local officials during 2013–2017 in China, we investigate the relationship between this practice and corporate bribery. The results show that the reduction in the budget of position-related consumption leads to an increase in firms’ business entertainment expenses. Firms pay for the personal consumption of local officials through business entertainment expenses, which essentially represents a bribe to local officials. Further analysis indicates that firms bribing local officials receive more government subsidies and preferential tax deductions. However, such reciprocity does not improve firm performance. This study examines the interplay of covert bribery and unethical corporate favoritism, contributing to the business ethics and corruption literature by identifying the relationship between firm venality, government-firm reciprocity, and firm development.

查看原文本刊更多论文

正在消失的职位相关消费：企业贿赂与政府-企业互惠

本文考察了在没有选举激励的情况下政府-企业互惠的伦理含义及其对企业绩效的影响。本文利用2013-2017年中国地方官员职务消费的手工采集数据，探讨了职务消费与企业贿赂的关系。研究结果表明，职位相关消费预算的减少导致企业商务娱乐支出的增加。企业通过商务招待费支付地方官员的个人消费，实质上是对地方官员的贿赂。进一步分析表明，贿赂地方官员的企业获得了更多的政府补贴和优惠税收减免。然而，这种互惠并不会提高企业绩效。本研究考察了隐性贿赂和不道德的企业偏袒之间的相互作用，通过确定企业贿赂、政府-企业互惠和企业发展之间的关系，为商业道德和腐败文献做出了贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Review of Economics & Finance Multiple-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.20%

发文量

253

期刊介绍： The International Review of Economics & Finance (IREF) is a scholarly journal devoted to the publication of high quality theoretical and empirical articles in all areas of international economics, macroeconomics and financial economics. Contributions that facilitate the communications between the real and the financial sectors of the economy are of particular interest.