TY - BOOK ID - 138301645 TI - Do Politically Connected Firms Innovate, Contributing to Long-Term Economic Growth? AU - Francis, David. AU - Hussain, Sahar. AU - Schiffbauer, Marc. PY - 2018 PB - Washington, D.C. : The World Bank, DB - UniCat KW - Access of Poor to Social Services KW - Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies KW - Common Carriers Industry KW - Construction Industry KW - Cronyism KW - De Facto Governments KW - Democratic Government KW - Disability KW - Economic Assistance KW - Economic Growth KW - Economic Theory and Research KW - Energy Policies and Economics KW - Energy Privatization KW - Firm-Level Data KW - Food and Beverage Industry KW - General Manufacturing KW - Governance KW - Industrial Economics KW - Innovation KW - International Trade and Trade Rules KW - Macroeconomics and Economic Growth KW - Plastics and Rubber Industry KW - Political Connections KW - Private Sector Development KW - Privatization KW - Productivity KW - Pulp and Paper Industry KW - Resource Allocation KW - Services and Transfers to Poor KW - Textiles Apparel and Leather Industry UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:138301645 AB - This paper presents new evidence that cronyism reduces long-term economic growth by discouraging firms' innovation activities. The analysis is based on novel establishment survey data from The Arab Republic of Egypt which provides information on establishments' political connections, their innovation activities, and their access to policy privileges. The analysis finds that the probability that firms invest in products new to the firm increases from under 1 percent for politically connected firms to over 7 percent for unconnected firms. The results are robust across different innovation measures. Despite innovating less, politically connected firms are more capital intensive, as they face lower marginal cost of capital due to the generous policy privileges they receive, including exclusive access to input subsidies, public procurement contracts, favorable exchange rates, and financing from politically connected banks. These privileges are largest when compared with their direct competitors operating in the same 4-digit sectors. The findings suggest that connected firms out-rival their competitors by lobbying for privileges instead of innovating. In the aggregate, these policy privileges reduce Egypt's long-term growth potential by diverting resources away from innovation to the inefficient capital accumulation of a few large, connected firms. A wide array of supporting evidence suggests that this effect is causal and not due to selection. ER -