The Returns to Office in a 'Rubber Stamp' Parliament

Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 2012

35 Pages Posted: 6 Aug 2012 Last revised: 5 Mar 2013

See all articles by Rory Truex

Rory Truex

Princeton University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: March 4, 2013

Abstract

What are the returns to office in an authoritarian parliament? A new dataset shows that over 500 deputies to China's National People's Congress are CEOs of various companies. Entropy balancing is used to construct a weighted portfolio of Chinese companies that matches companies with NPC representation on relevant financial characteristics prior to the 11th Congress (2008-2012). The weighted fixed effect analysis suggests that a seat in the NPC is worth an additional 2.01 to 2.04 percentage points in returns and a 6.92 to 7.46 percentage point boost in operating profit margin in a given year. These micro-level findings buttress cross-national evidence and contribute to an emerging literature on the nature of representation in these institutions.

Keywords: authoritarian institutions, representation, co-optation, returns to office, China, National People's Congress, entropy balancing

Suggested Citation

Truex, Rory, The Returns to Office in a 'Rubber Stamp' Parliament (March 4, 2013). Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2098086 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2098086

Rory Truex (Contact Author)

Princeton University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Corwin Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-1012
United States

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