Corruption and firm-financial fragility : an empirical approach

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Κατσίδημας, Νικόλαος
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Katsidimas, Nikolaos
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2022
• Θέματα: Financial fragility; Corruption; Firm performance; Corruption perception index; ROA; ZSCORE; Oικονομική ευθραυστότητα; Διαφθορά; Επίδοση επιχειρήσεων

This dissertation examines the effect of corruption on the financial fragility and performance of Greek firms from 2006 to 2014. Our sample includes 141,960 firm-year observations of 26,385 firms. After delving into the vast literature, we establish two hypotheses as our research questions, which aim to find whether corruption is associated with the financial fragility of Greek firms and whether it harms their performance. We find evidence that indeed corruption is positively associated with the fragility of Greek firms, meaning that higher corruption leads to higher risk of insolvency. We also find evidence that corruption is negatively associated with firm performance in Greece, since higher corruption leads to lower ROA. Thus, both our hypotheses are confirmed.