Leviathan Inc. and corporate environmental engagement

Author

Po-Hsuan HSU, National Tsinghua University
Hao LIANG, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Pedro MATOS, University of Virginia

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

12-2023

Abstract

In a 2010 special report, The Economist magazine termed the resurgence of state-owned, publicly listed enterprises “Leviathan Inc.” and criticized the poor governance and low efficiency of these firms. We compile a new comprehensive data set of state ownership of publicly listed firms in 44 countries over the period of 2004–2017 and show that state-owned enterprises are more responsive to environmental issues. The effect is more pronounced in economies lacking energy security and strong environmental regulation, and among firms with more local operations and higher domestic government ownership. We find a similar effect on corporate social engagement but not on governance quality. These results suggest a different role for “Leviathan Inc.,” especially in dealing with environmental externalities.

Discipline

Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics | Finance and Financial Management

Research Areas

Finance

Publication

Management Science

Volume

69

Issue

12

First Page

7151

Last Page

7882

ISSN

0025-1909

Identifier

10.1287/mnsc.2021.4064

Publisher

Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences

Citation

HSU, Po-Hsuan; LIANG, Hao; and MATOS, Pedro. Leviathan Inc. and corporate environmental engagement. (2023). Management Science. 69, (12), 7151-7882.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6923

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4064