Benefits and costs of political connections: evidence from Tunisia

Q4 Economics, Econometrics and Finance

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pub Date : 2014-08-11 DOI:10.1504/IJAAPE.2014.064235

Naima Lassoued, Mouna Attia

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引用次数: 14

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether political connections in Tunisia give firms advantages such us easy access to external financing and tax benefits and/or force them to spend more on employment. In addition, we show if political connections affect accounting and market performance. Using a sample of listed Tunisian firms between 2006 and 2010, we apply OLS regression to identify the effect of political connections on firms' policies and performance. We find that politically connected firms gain easier access to credit with relatively high costs compared to unconnected counterparts. They are offered more government subsidies and they enjoy better tax benefits thanks to their ties with politicians. Additionally, politically connected firms outperform their unconnected counterparts and they have higher value. Hence, political relationships seem to help firms getting access to key resources which improve their accounting and market performance without contributing to the job creation process. Our results are more robust for non-financial firms.

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政治关系的利益与代价:来自突尼斯的证据

本文的目的是调查突尼斯的政治关系是否给公司带来了优势，比如容易获得外部融资和税收优惠，以及/或迫使他们在就业上花更多的钱。此外，我们还展示了政治关系是否会影响会计和市场绩效。利用2006年至2010年间突尼斯上市公司的样本，我们应用OLS回归来确定政治关系对公司政策和绩效的影响。我们发现，与没有政治关系的公司相比，有政治关系的公司更容易获得成本相对较高的信贷。他们得到了更多的政府补贴，由于他们与政客的关系，他们享受到更好的税收优惠。此外，有政治关系的公司比没有政治关系的公司表现更好，具有更高的价值。因此，政治关系似乎有助于公司获得关键资源，从而改善其会计和市场表现，而不有助于创造就业机会。我们的结果对非金融企业更为强劲。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Economics, Econometrics and Finance-Finance

CiteScore

0.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： IJAAPE publishes original scholarly papers across the whole spectrum of: financial accounting, managerial accounting, accounting education, auditing, taxation, public sector accounting, capital market and accounting, accounting information systems, performance evaluation, corporate governance, ethics, and financial management. All methodologies, such as analytical, empirical, behavioural, surveys, and case studies are welcome. IJAAPE encourages contributions especially from emerging markets and economies in transition and studies whose results are applicable across nation states or capable of being adapted to the different accounting and business environments.