Using data on over a million land transactions during 2004-2016 where local governments are the sole seller, we find that firms linked to members of China's supreme political elites — the Politburo — obtained a price discount ranging from 55.4% to 59.9% compared to those without the same...

Using transactions conducted by publicly listed firms in China’s primary land market during 2000-2012 as a case study, we confirm that political connections are essentially corruption. By constructing unique measures to partial out the key factors confounding political connections, namely...