Premium
Impact of Democratic Political Transition on the Performance of Business Firms in Ghana *
Author(s) -
Anaman Kwabena Asomanin,
AgyeiSasu Felix
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
economic papers: a journal of applied economics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1759-3441
pISSN - 0812-0439
DOI - 10.1111/j.1759-3441.2011.00151.x
Subject(s) - return on equity , democracy , corporate governance , politics , gross domestic product , economics , return on assets , stock exchange , monetary economics , accounting , business , finance , political science , macroeconomics , law
We analyse the factors influencing the performance of firms listed in the Ghana Stock Exchange based on the rate of return on equity (ROE) using data from twenty‐two companies listed on Ghana Stock Exchange from 1990 to 2009. Governance factors and non‐governance factors specific to the firm are included. Macroeconomic factors included in the model are the inflation rate and economic growth based on the growth of real gross domestic product. Democratic political transition is incorporated in the model with two separate dummy variables representing an election year and the transition year defined as the immediate after the election year and an interaction term combining government budget deficit as the proportion of gross domestic product and election year dummy variable. The results of the analysis indicate that firms having the chief executive officer as the chairman of board have significantly less return than those where the chief executive officer is not the chairman. Further, the size of board affects negatively ROE. Economic growth and inflation affect positively ROE. The effect of democratic political transition on ROE is mixed; return increases in an election year but declines in a transition year after an election. Government budget deficit in an election year has a negative impact on ROE.