Do Political Connections Affect Corporate Performance? Evidence from Listed Real Estate Companies in China

Political connection are widespread in many countries and are a hot topic in economic research right now. In China, companies are actively forming political connections in several ways. Based on the research model and theoretical analysis, this thesis puts forward the research hypothesis and constructs the research model of political connections and corporate performance using the financial data and corporate governance data of China A-share listed real estate companies in 2010-2014. The thesis mainly analyzes the political association of CEO. For the analysis result, this research uses the univariate regression analysis and multivariate analysis to carry out the robustness test. The empirical study analysis includes three parts: firstly, in Chinese listed real estate enterprises, CEO political connection has a significantly negative correlation with corporate performance. It means real estate enterprises whose CEO has political connections gain a lower performance than other enterprises; Secondly, from the personal characteristics of the CEO, age, sex and education level have positive relationship with the performance of the enterprise, the additional post situation negatively related to the firm's performance; Finally, the firm's scale liquidity ratio and capital asset rario have a negative relationship with corporate performance, and the number of top managers is positively related to corporate performance. This research made a study on the political connection in Chinese real estate industry, which could also provide beneficial references for the development of enterprises in this industry.