不确定性会导致企业寻租吗?--基于世界银行投资环境调查的实证研究

Does Uncertainty Cause Corporate Bribery?--Evidence from World Bank Investment Climate Survey

在我国经济政策不确定性上升的背景下,企业可能会通过寻租或行贿的手段来缓解不确定性造成的经营问题。利用2005年世界银行投资环境调查数据,本文首先从信贷、雇佣规模等角度,描述了高不确定性水平下企业面临的经营困难。进一步借鉴以往文献,采用招待费、差旅费支出度量寻租费用之后,我们发现不确定性上升显著提高了企业的寻租费用,并且这一关系在国有企业和高管学历较低的企业中更为明显。最后,我们通过使用企业的管理层变动和地方主政官员变动构建不确定性的工具变量、其他类型的指标度量不确定性等多种方法,进一步验证了不确定性导致企业寻租这一关系的稳健性。本文结论表明,降低企业面临的经济政策不确定性,可以起到降低企业的寻租动机,从而克制腐败的重要作用。

This paper studies firms’bribery behavior in the context of China’s high econom icand policy uncertainty.Using Investment Climate Survey conducted by the WorldBa nk in 2005,we first show that uncertainty increases firms’financial burden and decreasestheir employment size.To ease economic plight,firms d more on briberyrelatedexp enditure,measured by the Entertainment and speTravelling nCost.The effect of uncertaintyon bribery is more pronounced among SOEs and among firms with less educated m anagers.Our results are robust to instrumental variable estimations and estimationswith alternative measurements of uncertainty.