Who becomes a top politician in China? We focus on provincial leaders - a pool of candidates for top political office … - and examine how their chances of promotion depend on their performance in office and connections with top politicians. Our … empirical analysis, based on the curriculum vitae of Chinese politicians, shows that connections and performance are complements …

We examine the effects of bank's political connection on bank performance and risk in China. We use hand … distress. Our results offer a mechanism of political rent seeking, consistent with the institutional environment of China …

Whether a political system can attract high-quality candidates is key to producing high-quality politicians. In this … advantage. Exploiting a natural experiment in China, where universities adopt an arbitrary score cutoff to enroll students, we …