Political connections and investment efficiency of renewable energy enterprises: The role of marketization

Using data from 77 listed renewable energy enterprises in China and the threshold effect model, this study investigates the impact of political connections on the investment efficiencies of renewable energy enterprises at different degrees of marketization. A Richardson residual measurement model is applied to measure this efficiency. Further, this study constructs a cash flow sensitivity model to analyze how the political connections affect investment efficiency through financing factors and then analyzes the four external financing channels using a path analysis. The results show that when the degree of marketization is less than 9.280, political connections can improve investment efficiency. When the degree of marketization exceeds 9.280, the influence of political connections on investment efficiency is statistically insignificant. At a low marketization stage, political connections enhance the ability of enterprises to acquire resources through four kinds of external financing channels: bank credit, corporate bonds, commercial credit, and equity financing. This supports investment efficiency by reducing cash flow sensitivity. Due to the differences in the nature of the enterprises and personnel appointments, non-state-owned renewable energy enterprises with political connections experience more significant differences with respect to the impact on investment efficiency under different marketization levels.