Red tape reform, transaction costs, and corporate social performance: A natural quasi-experiment in China
基于1998-2016年中国城市行政审批中心逐步设立的自然准实验，研究发现减少繁文缛节通过降低企业交易成本提升了企业社会绩效（慈善捐赠），且效果因改革特征而异。
The question of how government red tape affects corporate social performance (CSP) has received little attention. Based on the transaction cost and institutional theories, we hypothesize a theoretical link between external red tape and CSP. We employ a natural quasi-experiment based on the gradual rollout in some cities of administrative licensing centers, which aimed to reduce red tape and link these with firm-level charitable donation data from 1998 to 2016. Results show that red tape reform improved CSP by reducing corporate efficiency-based transaction costs and that this facilitating effect is heterogeneous in terms of red tape reform characteristics. Our study advances external red tape research by confirming the positive role of red tape reform in fostering socially conscious stakeholder behavior.