This study aims to contribute to an understanding of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process in an emerging market, using the case of Malaysia. Malaysia offers an interesting and important setting as Malaysian companies are highly concentrated and politically sensitive. In particular, the study seeks to: (i) examine the level of political connections represented in the audit committees associated with the level of audit fees incurred by Malaysian public listed companies; and (ii) examine whether politically connected audit committees have an impact on the audit process. Currently, there is scant evidence on the influence of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process. The study draws upon agency and resource dependence theories, which suggest that politically connected audit committees serve two important functions: monitoring on behalf of the shareholders, and providing resources to the companies. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method approach (archival data analysis and interviews) has been adopted. Four hypotheses are tested: (1) There is a positive relationship between the proportion of audit committee members who are senior government officers (SGO) and audit fees; (2) There is a positive relationship between the proportions of audit committee members who are politicians and audit fees; (3) There is a positive relationship between the percentage of government shares and audit fees; and (4) There is a positive relationship between audit committee characteristics (independence, size, meeting and financial expertise) and audit fees. In addition, the knowledge obtained from the interviews with Big 4 auditors and members of audit committees from the selected companies provide further insights on the influence of political connections on the audit process. The results of the study indicate that politically connected audit committees (identified by members who are either senior government officers or politicians) have a significant association with the incidence of higher audit fees. This suggests that politically connected audit committees are able to capitalise on their connections to influence companies and create direct demand for the auditors to increase their audit effort, as measured by audit fees. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant relationship between government shares and audit fees. This result may be explained by the fact that government shares are managed by a variety of institutions on behalf of the government, and differences in the objectives and characteristics of the institutions that administer the shares can weaken the demand for higher efforts from auditors. An in-depth analysis of the interviews further reveals that political connections do affect the audit process. It appears that the existence of political connections leads to an increase in audit work such in a variety of ways, such as auditor-client negotiations, private meetings with audit committees and re-engineering the scope and planning of the actual audit work. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is that companies highly value political connections to obtain external resources given the uncertainties in the business environment. Also, the findings highlight the need for stronger corporate governance to mitigate the higher inherent audit risks in politically connected companies.

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part analyses recently published data from the Central Grant Registry (CEDR) on state grant distribution in Czechia between 1999 and the present year. In the second part, I link this data to information on political connections established through donations to parties and examine whether politically connected firms are more successful in competing for state grants. I match the donating firms to non-donating but otherwise similar firms using propensity scores based on a number of observable characteristics. The results indicate that donating companies have a 40% higher success rate in receiving state grants compared to non-donating firms. I find that the effect is higher for grants from the state budget than for grants from EU funds, which is consistent with EU-funded grants being subject to stricter regulations. JEL Classification D72, D73, H2, H71, H81 Keywords grants, subsidies, donations, political connections Author's e-mail martin.kopecek@smallhill.cz Supervisor's e-mail miroslav.palansky@gmail.com

abstract: In this study, I test whether firms reduce the information asymmetry stemming from the political process by investing in political connections. I expect that connected firms enjoy differential access to relevant political information, and use this information to mitigate the negative consequences of political uncertainty. I investigate this construct in the context of firm-specific investment, where prior literature has documented a negative relation between investment and uncertainty. Specifically, I regress firm investment levels on the interaction of time-varying political uncertainty and the degree of a firm's political connectedness, controlling for determinants of investment, political participation, general macroeconomic conditions, and firm and time-period fixed effects. Consistent with prior work, I first document that firm-specific investment levels are significantly lower during periods of increased uncertainty, defined as the year leading up to a national election. I then assess the extent that political connections offset the negative effect of political uncertainty. Consistent with my hypothesis, I document the mitigating effect of political connections on the negative relation between investment levels and political uncertainty. These findings are robust to controls for alternative explanations related to the pre-electoral manipulation hypothesis and industry-level political participation. These findings are also robust to alternative specifications designed to address the possibility that time-invariant firm characteristics are driving the observed results. I also examine whether investors consider time-varying political uncertainty and the mitigating effect of political connections when capitalizing current earnings news. I find support that the earnings-response coefficient is lower during periods of increased uncertainty. However, I do not find evidence that investors incorporate the value relevant information in political connections as a mitigating factor. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Accountancy 2014

We introduce the topic of this Special Issue on the "Role of Financial and Legal Institutions in International Governance", with a particular emphasis on a notion of "international mobility of corporate governance". Our discussion places the Special Issue at the intersection of law, finance, and international business, with a focus on the contexts of foreign investors and directors. Country-level legal and regulatory institutions facilitate foreign ownership, foreign directors, raising external financial capital, and international M&A activity. The interplay between the impact of foreign ownership and foreign directors on firm governance and performance depends on international differences in formal/regulatory institutions. In addition to legal conditions, informal institutions such as political connections also shape the economic value of foreign ownership and foreign directors. We highlight key papers in the literature, provide an overview of the new papers in this Special Issue, and offer suggestions for future research.

This thesis is about how elected politicians stay in power and about some of its economic and social consequences, fundamental political economy questions. It takes advantage of the decentralized political structure in the Philippines to test models of voter and politician behavior. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on clientelism and retrospective voting. In Chapter One, I assess the impacts of targeted government transfers on a local incumbent's electoral performance. I use the randomized roll-out of a CCT program in the Philippines where a number of municipalities are tightly controlled by political dynasties. In a competitive political environment, incumbent vote share is 26 percentage-points higher in municipalities where the program was implemented in all villages than in municipalities where the program was implemented in half of them. The program had no impact in municipalities with low levels of political competition. In Chapter Two, I test for the presence of political business cycles in Philippine municipalities over the period 2003-2009, a context where according to the literature such cycles are likely to be observed. I find robust evidence for the presence of political business. This effect is only present when I use quarterly data and vanishes when I aggregate the data at the yearly-level. The difference is not merely driven by a decline in statistical power due to aggregation: point estimates for the overall effects are 7 times larger when I use quarterly data than when I use yearly data. This discrepancy can be explained by a drop in employment post-election that dilutes the yearly effects. In Chapter Three, we estimate the impacts of being connected to local politicians, either currently in office or in opposition, on occupational choice. We use a large administrative dataset collected between 2008 and 2010 on all individuals in 700 Philippine municipalities along with information on all candidates in the 2007 and 2010 municipal elections. We rely on local naming conventions to assess blood and marriage links between households. Using individuals connected to successful candidates in the 2010 elections that did not run in 2007 as a control group, we find that connections to current office-holders increase the likelihood of being employed in better paying occupations. Individuals connected to candidates that were close to being elected in 2007 are less likely to be employed in better paying occupations.

Cette thèse se compose de trois chapitres distincts. Le premier chapitre examine le lien de causalité entre l’offre de prêts syndiqués par des banques et les contributions de campagnes électorales par des entreprises non-financières aux États-Unis au cours de la crise financière de 2007–2008. Les résultats indiquent qu’une diminution de 10% de l’offre de prêt à une entreprise donnée par ses prêteurs pré-crise pendant la première période de crise entraîne une augmentation de 9% des contributions de campagne par cette entreprise en 2008. De plus, le niveau de contributions de campagne par des entreprises dans le passé est positivement associé à des conditions de prêt favorables dans l’avenir. Les résultats appuient l’idée que les contributions de campagne sont un investissement dans le capital politique plutôt qu’une simple forme de bien de consommation. Le deuxième chapitre identifie l’effet d’exposition industrielle de banques avant leur entrée sur le marché sur la croissance de production des secteurs de fabrication. Les résultats indiquent que plus grande est la différence de spécialisation dans un secteur entre deux états, plus grand est l’impact d’intégration bancaire sur la croissance de ce secteur dans l’état qui est moins spécialisé. Le dernier chapitre examine si l’intégration bancaire dans plusieurs régions a un impact sur le marché de contrôle des entreprises entre elles. Les résultats indiquent qu’il y a plus de fusions, acquisitions et cessions dans les paires d’états dont les systèmes bancaires ont connu une plus grande intégration, par rapport à des paires d’états sans une telle intégration. Les résultats dans les deux derniers chapitres indiquent un canal bancaire qui façonne le paysage industriel d’états. / This dissertation is made of three distinct chapters. The first chapter examines the causal link between banks’ syndicated loan supply and non-financial firms’ campaign contributions for US elections during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The results indicate that a 10% decrease in loan supply of a given firm by its pre-crisis relationship lenders during the early crisis period leads to a 9% increase in firm’s campaign contributions in 2008. Further, firms’ level of past campaign contributions is positively associated with favorable loan terms for the future. The findings lend support to the idea that campaign contributions are an investment in political capital rather than merely a form of consumption good. The second chapter identifies the effect of banks’ industry exposures prior to market-entry on the output growth of manufacturing sectors through US bank-entry deregulations. The findings indicate that the larger the discrepancy in specialization in an industry between a state-pair, the higher the impact of banking integration on the growth of that sector in the state that is less-specialized. The last chapter examines whether banking integration across regions has any impact on the market for corporate control between them. The results show that there are more M&As and divestitures across state-pairs whose banking systems have experienced a higher integration, compared to state-pairs with no such integration. The findings in the last two chapters indicate a banking channel that shapes the states’ industrial landscape.

This thesis is a case study about Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese media industry. The implementation of CSR in state-owned media companies and private media companies are different. The role that the government play in Chinese media companies implementing CSR were barely studied before. Since this thesis is a case study, two media companies were chosen for this study. One is CCTV, a state-owned media company, another is Tencent, a private media company. Document analysis was chosen as the main method for the analysis. Stakeholder theory, corporate political connection, and meta-governance are the main theories used in this study. In this thesis, the analysis of implementing CSR is divided into two dimensions, internally and externally implementing CSR. The internal dimension is further analyzed in three aspects, employees and health at work, shareholders, and public welfare and charitable activities. The external dimension is further analyzed in four aspects, customers, business partners, local community, and government. The role of the government in companies implementing CSR is subsequently analyzed. The results show that in implementing CSR, state-owned media companies significantly different from private companies. State-owned media companies follow more on government’s guidance, private media companies have more freedom but they still need to build a good relationship with the government. The role of the government in both companies is different. The role of the government in state-owned media companies is like a leader, and in private media companies is like an important stakeholder.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2017-08-31T13:48:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1659534 bytes, checksum: 1b2924b9fd8a32a8b34b8c78d7f46089 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2017-08-31T15:55:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1659534 bytes, checksum: 1b2924b9fd8a32a8b34b8c78d7f46089 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2017-08-31T15:59:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1659534 bytes, checksum: 1b2924b9fd8a32a8b34b8c78d7f46089 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-31T15:59:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1659534 bytes, checksum: 1b2924b9fd8a32a8b34b8c78d7f46089 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study sought to analyze the effect of the political connections on the cost and the corporate debt gain, assuming the importance of the benefits tied to the government's political interference in the firms. Based on the model proposed by Bliss and Gull (2012), the political connections were measured in a way adapted to the Brazilian context, following three means in which the government uses to maintain links with the organizations, they are: the connection by property structure , By board of directors and by donations or financing to the electoral campaigns. The sample consisted of 233 companies that had their cost and their debt gain quantified, verified the possible relations with the political connections and some financial characteristics, through regressions by the Weighted Least Squares Method (MQP), a methodology that seeks to assign a lower Weight to the observations that have greater variance of the error. In the results it was possible to observe, from the descriptive analyzes, a median of the debt cost per year of 16.72. It can also be observed that the effective gain of the debt, from the reduction of its cost, is not enjoyed by all the companies in the sample. Based on the regression analysis, it can be observed that the companies that hold the government ownership, with the direct shareholding in their shareholding structure, have a reduced debt cost in relation to the other companies in the sample. In addition, the evidence indicates that companies that have members of their Boards of Directors with political backgrounds earn higher debt gains. Thus, it is possible to emphasize that the main contributions of this study refer to the evidence that the political connections of companies in Brazil are directly related to the reduction of the cost of corporate debt, which is also confirmed by the study of their positive relations With the debt gain, since it is possible to notice that politically connected companies have a greater reduction of their cost of debt than their cost of equity. This suggests that such firms may be having greater access to the reduced interest rates of public banks. / Este estudo buscou analisar qual é o efeito das conexões políticas sobre o custo e o ganho da dívida das empresas, pressupondo a importância dos benefícios atrelados à interferência política do governo nas firmas. Com base no modelo proposto por Bliss e Gull (2012), as conexões políticas foram mensuradas de modo adaptado ao contexto brasileiro, seguindo três meios em que o governo se utiliza para manter elos com as organizações, são eles: a conexão por estrutura de propriedade, por conselho de administração e por doações ou financiamentos às campanhas eleitorais. A amostra contou com 233 empresas que tiveram seu custo e seu ganho da dívida quantificado, verificadas as possíveis relações com as conexões políticas e algumas características financeiras, por meio de regressões pelo Método dos Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados (MQP), metodologia que busca atribuir um menor peso às observações que possuem maior variância do erro. Nos resultados foi possível notar, a partir das análises descritivas, uma mediana do custo da dívida ao ano de 16,72. Também pode ser observado que o ganho efetivo da dívida, proveniente da redução de seu custo, não é desfrutado por todas as empresas da amostra. Com base nas análises de regressão, pode-se observar que as empresas que mantêm em sua estrutura acionária a propriedade do governo, com a participação acionária de forma direta, apresentam um custo da dívida reduzido em relação às demais empresas da amostra. Adicionalmente, as evidências indicam que empresas que possuem membros de seus Conselhos de Administração com antecedentes políticos auferem maiores ganhos da dívida. Dessa forma, é possível destacar que as principais contribuições deste estudo se referem às evidências de que as conexões políticas das empresas no Brasil estão diretamente ligadas à redução do custo da dívida das empresas, o que é ratificado pelo estudo, também, de suas relações positivas com o ganho da dívida, uma vez que é possível notar que empresas conectadas politicamente possuem maior redução de seu custo da dívida do que do seu custo de capital próprio. Isto sugere que tais empresas podem estar tendo maior acesso às taxas de juros reduzidas dos bancos públicos.

No description available.

Corporate political connections have been shown to induce preferential treatment towards connected firms. This thesis evaluates whether the effect of connections is reflected in the composition of public procurement suppliers in Czechia, using municipal procurement awarded between 2006 and 2020. In particular, we hypothesise that changes in municipal mayors affected the rate of new procurement suppliers following the elections in 2014 and 2018. The findings show that the rate of new suppliers increased significantly in municipalities that elected a new mayor in the 2014 elections; however, the effects appeared to be negative in 2018. We further hypothesise that these results can be driven by the major success of new political parties in 2014, with a large share of new politicians being elected to office. We specifically examine the case of ANO, the political movement that dominated both elections. We do not find robust evidence of a surge in new suppliers in municipalities where ANO was notably successful, suggesting that the effect was not driven only by this party and pointing to alternative explanations.