Does corruption hinder private businesses? Leadership stability and predictable corruption in China

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions

Publication Date

6-2017

Volume

30

Issue

3

First Page

343

Last Page

363

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

Abstract

We study whether corruption hinders businesses by investigating China's private enterprises, which have developed rapidly despite high corruption levels. We argue that a key factor determining the effects of corruption is corruption predictability, which is significantly influenced by government leadership stability. When the same leaders remain in major offices for long tenures, corruption is relatively predictable, reducing hindrance to businesses. When leaders change frequently, entrepreneurs need to constantly cultivate new connections with officials and face more uncertainty; therefore, corruption becomes a major obstacle. We conduct field interviews to explore channels through which leadership stability encourages predictable corruption. We also use the 2012 World Bank Enterprise Survey of Chinese private firms and develop a novel measure of leadership stability of the local Chinese government based on a self-collected data set of municipal party committees to test our hypotheses. Results of various models are consistent with our hypotheses.

DOI

10.1111/gove.12220

Print ISSN

09521895

E-ISSN

14680491

Funding Information

This project is sponsored by Hong Kong RGC GRF (project no. 17411814). {17411814}

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Zhu, J., & Zhang, D. (2017). Does corruption hinder private businesses? Leadership stability and predictable corruption in China. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 30(3), 343–363. doi: 10.1111/gove.12220

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