000			03052cam a22003617 4500
001			w25136
003			NBER
005			20211020104400.0
006			m o d
007			cr cnu||||||||
008			210910s2018 mau fo 000 0 eng d
100	1		_aAkcigit, Ufuk.
245	1	0	_aConnecting to Power: _bPolitical Connections, Innovation, and Firm Dynamics / _cUfuk Akcigit, Salomé Baslandze, Francesca Lotti.
260			_aCambridge, Mass. _bNational Bureau of Economic Research _c2018.
300			_a1 online resource: _billustrations (black and white);
490	1		_aNBER working paper series _vno. w25136
500			_aOctober 2018.
520	3		_aHow do political connections affect firm dynamics, innovation, and creative destruction? To answer this question, we build a firm dynamics model, where we allow firms to invest in innovation and/or political connection to advance their productivity and to overcome certain market frictions. Our model generates a number of theoretical testable predictions and highlights a new interaction between static gains and dynamic losses from rent-seeking in aggregate productivity. We test the predictions of our model using a brand-new dataset on Italian firms and their workers, spanning the period from 1993 to 2014, where we merge: (i) firm-level balance sheet data; (ii) social security data on the universe of workers; (iii) patent data from the European Patent Office; (iv) the national registry of local politicians; and (v) detailed data on local elections in Italy. We find that firm-level political connections are widespread, especially among large firms, and that industries with a larger share of politically connected firms feature worse firm dynamics. We identify a leadership paradox: when compared to their competitors, market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected, but much less likely to innovate. In addition, political connections relate to a higher rate of survival, as well as growth in employment and revenue, but not in productivity - a result that we also confirm using a regression discontinuity design.
530			_aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
538			_aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
538			_aMode of access: World Wide Web.
588	0		_aPrint version record
690		7	_aD70 - General _2Journal of Economic Literature class.
690		7	_aO3 - Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights _2Journal of Economic Literature class.
690		7	_aO4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity _2Journal of Economic Literature class.
700	1		_aBaslandze, Salomé.
700	1		_aLotti, Francesca. _915600
710	2		_aNational Bureau of Economic Research.
830		0	_aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) _vno. w25136.
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.nber.org/papers/w25136
856			_yAcceso en línea al DOI _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w25136
942			_2ddc _cW-PAPER
999			_c322986 _d281548