Stock Ownership and Political Behavior: Evidence from Demutualizations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kaustia, Markku; Knupfer, Samuli; Torstila, Sami
• 署名单位: Aalto University; BI Norwegian Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2014.2135
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 945-963
• 关键词: stock ownership; Political behavior; SALIENCE; attention; IDENTITY

摘要

A setting in which customer-owned mutual companies converted to publicly listed firms created a plausibly exogenous increase in stock ownership. We use this shock to identify the effect of ownership of publicly listed shares on political behavior. Using instrumental variable regressions, difference-in-differences analyses, and matching methods, we find the shock changed the way people vote in the affected areas, with the demutualizations being followed by a 1.7-2.7- percentage-point increase in right-of-center vote share. Analyses of demutualizations that did not involve public listing of shares suggest that explanations based on wealth, liquidity, and tax-related incentives do not drive the results, and that the ownership of publicly listed shares was instrumental in generating the increase in conservative voting.