Egalitarianism and international investment

Jordan I. Siegel, Amir N. Licht and Shalom Schwartz ()

Journal of Financial Economics, 2011, vol. 102, issue 3, 621-642

Abstract: This study identifies how country differences on a key cultural dimension—egalitarianism—influence international investment flows. A society's cultural orientation toward egalitarianism is manifested by intolerance for abuses of market and political power and a desire for protecting less powerful actors. We show egalitarianism to be based on exogenous factors including social fractionalization, dominant religion circa 1900, and war experience from the 19th century. We find a robust influence of egalitarianism distance on cross-national flows of bond and equity issuances, syndicated loans, and mergers and acquisitions. An informal cultural institution largely determined a century or more ago, egalitarianism exercises its effect on international investment via an associated set of consistent contemporary policy choices. But even after controlling for these associated policy choices, egalitarianism continues to exercise a direct effect on cross-border investment flows, likely through its direct influence on managers' daily business conduct.

Keywords: Culture; Informal institutions; Social institutions; Egalitarianism; Cultural distance; International investment; Cross-listing; Foreign direct investment; Mergers and acquisitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F21 F23 G32 G34 K22 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (111)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:102:y:2011:i:3:p:621-642

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.05.010

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