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July 18, 2014 Your Company Can Benefit If a Top Politician Is Your Friend The stock of companies whose top executives or major shareholders were friends of Nicolas Sarkozy outperformed other firms' stock by 3% after Sarkozy's election as president of France in 2007, according to Renaud Coulomb of the Paris School of Economics and Marc Sangnier of Aix-Marseille University. For comparison, past researchers have estimated the returns to being connected to powerful officials at 5% in Italy and Turkey and 8% in China. Sarkozy, who served until 2012, was recently put under official investigation in France and charged with corruption and influence peddling. SOURCE: The impact of political majorities on firm value: Do electoral promises or friendship connections matter?

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