Subdue One's Self and Return to Propriety:Local Chairman and Firm Violation
Taking A-share listed companies from 2003 to 2022 as samples,this paper examines the impact of local chairman on firm violation from the perspective of informal system.Results show that local chairman has a strong sense of hometown identity and faces greater pressure from public opin-ion,so she will supervise and restrict the behavior of firms more strictly,and reduce the probability and frequency of firm violations.At the same time,we find that when local chairman is older,has longer tenure,or when the firm has stronger external supervision,the negative effect of local chairman on firm violation will be more pronounced,suggesting that the stronger sense of belonging the local chairman has for the hometown,as well as the greater the exter-nal constraints,the local chairman will be more likely to"subdue herself and return to propriety".Furthermore,we find that the severity of firm violation is lower and it is less likely to be a leader's violation case when the firm has a local chairman.This paper rules out the alternative explanation of government rent-seeking using several methods and finds that local chairman's self-restraint and hometown identity are consistently manifested in other decisions such as being more socially responsible and having a lower degree of tax avoidance.This paper supplements and expands the literature in the field of factors af-fecting firm violation from the perspective of an informal system,namely,hometown identity,enriches the research on the topic of"culture and finance",and has certain enlightening significance for the supervision of firm violation.