Anti-corruption campaign, political connections, and court bias: Evidence from Chinese corporate lawsuits
中文摘要
本文证实了法院中政治腐败的存在，并识别出地方腐败官员为政治关联企业提供政治优待的一种新渠道——干预法院裁决。利用一套独特的数据集，其中包含涉及中国上市公司的11,238起商业诉讼，我们考察了中国近期的反腐败运动如何影响政治关联企业在法院中的优势；该运动的目标之一是打击对法院的政治干预。我们发现，反腐败运动后，关联企业的胜诉率下降了6.3%，这表明该运动阻止了腐败官员通过影响审判，将商业纠纷总涉案金额的1.8%从无政治关联方转移给政治关联方。对于与权力更大的官员有关联的企业、非合同类案件、下级法院、法律环境薄弱的地区，以及对地方政府依赖程度较高的法院，这一效应更为明显。此外，反腐败运动改善了司法环境，不仅提高了司法裁决质量，还增强了公众对司法体系的信心，并促使企业通过法院解决纠纷。最后，我们探讨了该运动更广泛的经济影响，发现运动开展后，初始司法运行状况较差的城市获得了更多投资、雇用了更多劳动力、创造了更多产出并吸引了更多新企业，尤其是在合同密集度较高的行业。总体而言，反腐败运动显著改善了中国的司法和经济环境。
Abstract
This paper establishes the presence of political corruption in court and identifies a novel channel—interfering with court decisions—through which local corrupt politicians provide political favors for politically connected firms. Using a unique data set of 11,238 commercial lawsuits involving Chinese listed firms, we examine how China's recent anti-corruption campaign, one of whose goals is to combat political interference in the courts, affects court advantages of politically connected firms. We find that connected firms' win rates dropped by 6.3% after the anti-corruption, suggesting that the campaign stopped corrupt politicians transferring 1.8% of total monetary amounts of commercial disputes from unconnected to politically connected parties by influencing trials. The effect is more salient for firms connected to more powerful officials, noncontract-based cases, lower-level courts, regions with weak legal environments, and courts that depend more on local government. Moreover, anti-corruption promotes a better judicial environment, not only improves the quality of judicial decisions, but also boosts public confidence in the judicial system, and encourages firms to settle conflicts through court. Finally, we explore the campaign's broader economic influences and find that after the campaign, cities with initially poorly functioning judiciaries gained more investment, employed more labor, produced more output, and attracted more new firms, particularly in those industries with high contract intensity. Overall, the anti-corruption campaign significantly improved the judicial and economic environment in China.