@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp16131,
            	author={Chen, Yutong and Chiplunkar, Gaurav and Sekhri, Sheetal and Sen, Anirban and Seth, Aaditeshwar},
            	title={How Do Political Connections of Firms Matter during an Economic Crisis?},
            	year={2023},
	month={May},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={16131},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16131},
	abstract={We use a new machine learning-enabled, social network based measurement technique to assemble a novel dataset of firms' political connections in India. Leveraging this data along with a long panel of detailed financial transactions of firms, we study how political connections matter during an economic downturn. Using a synthetic difference-in-differences framework, we find that connected firms had 8-10% higher income, sales, and TFPR gains that were persistent for over a three-year period following the crisis. We unpack various mechanisms and show that connected firms were able to delay their short-term payments to suppliers and creditors, delay debt and interest payments, decrease expensive long-term borrowings from banks in favor of short-term non-collateral ones, and increase investments in productive assets such as computers and software. Our method to determine political connections is portable to other applications and contexts.},
	keywords={political connections;firms;crisis},
            }