TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Diegmann, André
AU  - Pohlan, Laura
AU  - Weber, Andrea
        TI  - Do Politicians Affect Firm Outcomes? Evidence from Connections to the German Federal Parliament
        PY  - 2024/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17031
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17031
        AB  - We study how connections to German federal parliamentarians affect firm dynamics by constructing a novel dataset to measure connections between politicians and the universe of firms. To identify the causal effect of access to political power, we exploit (i) new appointments to the company leadership team and (ii) discontinuities around the marginal seat of party election lists. Our results reveal that connections lead to reductions in firm exits, gradual increases in employment growth without improvements in productivity. The economic effects are mediated by better credit ratings while access to subsidies or procurement contracts are documented to be of lower importance.
        KW  - identification
KW  - firm performance
KW  - politicians
KW  - political connections
        ER  -