Using a large hand-collected database of 605 privatized firms from 48 countries, we examine the relationship between the collectivism measure of culture and residual state ownership in privatized firms. We find that the continued role of government in privatized firms is positively related to...

We study the effect of a country's political freedom status on corporate payouts around the world. In both OLS and two-stage regressions, we find that firms in less free countries pay out more cash, suggesting that low political freedom is associated with a less friendly investment environment....

Using a large sample of firms from developed and developing countries over the 1990 to 2010 period, we document evidence of zero-leverage firms around the world. Further, we find strong and robust evidence that in countries with high scores on Schwartz's Conservatism and Mastery indices as well...

We examine the role of national culture — an important informal institution — in the profit reinvestment decisions of small firms in emerging markets. Prior economic development literature focuses on formal institutions as determinants of growth. However, in emerging markets where formal...

This paper examines how national culture, in particular collectivism, influences corruption in bank lending. We hypothesize that interdependent self-construal and particularist norms in collectivist countries lead to a higher level of lending corruption through their influence on both the...