Government connections and the persistence of profitability: Evidence from Chinese listed firms

We find that state owned enterprises (SOEs hereafter) have lower (higher) mean-reverting rates when profitability is better (worse) than the norm; while non-SOEs with politically connected executives have lower (higher) mean-reverting rates when profitability is extremely better (worse) than the norm. In addition, SOEs controlled by the central government have lower meanreverting rates than those controlled by local governments. Our results are robust to a series of robustness tests and a test using alternative measures of profitability. We argue that government connections help firms maintain a relatively competitive advantage and thus have an important influence on mean-reverting patterns of profitability for Chinese firms