Tunneling or Not? The Change of Legal Environment on the Effect of Post-Privatization Performance

Motivated by Hoff and Stiglitz’s (Am Econ Rev 94(3):753–763, 2004) theory, we examine empirically how the creation of “rules of the game” affect the behavior of economic agents in a transition economy. Using a sample of Chinese state-owned enterprises in which controlling ownership was transferred t...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Tu, Guoqian (Author) ; Yu, Frank (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2015
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2015, Volume: 129, Issue: 2, Pages: 491-510
Further subjects:B N25
B Ethics
B law and finance
B Privatization
B Investor Protection
B Tunneling
B G34
B N45
B M13
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Motivated by Hoff and Stiglitz’s (Am Econ Rev 94(3):753–763, 2004) theory, we examine empirically how the creation of “rules of the game” affect the behavior of economic agents in a transition economy. Using a sample of Chinese state-owned enterprises in which controlling ownership was transferred to private acquirers between 1994 and 2006, we find that the post-privatization performance (PPP) of firms depends on institutional factors. Before 2003, we observe severe post-privatization tunneling behaviors by acquirers and worse PPP. However, from 2003, when the State issued regulations against tunneling and strengthened enforcement, the incidence of tunneling behaviors declined, and PPP improved. We find that better implementation of ownership transfer and longer prior experience of private acquirers are key factors that contribute to the improvement.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2169-9