No Cover Image

E-Thesis 275 views

Political Connection in the GCC Banks / FATMA AHMED

Swansea University Author: FATMA AHMED

  • E-Thesis – open access under embargo until: 25th March 2025

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.59711

Abstract

In the context of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the political connec-tion has been subject to little scrutiny and the question of why this remains the case deserves further attention. This thesis aims to investigate the effect of political connection on the GCC banks taking into consider...

Full description

Published: Swansea 2022
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Cook, Steve; Debowicz, Dario
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59711
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: In the context of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the political connec-tion has been subject to little scrutiny and the question of why this remains the case deserves further attention. This thesis aims to investigate the effect of political connection on the GCC banks taking into consideration two major crises: the global financial crisis of 2008, and the Qatar blockade crisis of 2017. The thesis provides several contributions to the political connection literature. Firstly, the author knows of no pre-existing empirical work that attempts to map the academic structure of political connection literature from extant bibliometric studies. Secondly, the study is the first to investigate the effect of political connection on banks’ capital structure in the GCC countries using manually collected primary data. Thirdly, the present research provides several contributions to the political economy and corporate gov-ernance literature. Scarce attention has been afforded to diversity and political connection subject matter, especially in Gulf countries. In particular, the banking sector in the GCC countries is highly connected and most of the boards of directors include a large number of foreign directors, especially from the GCC region. The findings provide several important policy implications for policymakers, investors, and regulators. The study suggests a degree of caution with respect to governments regarding the amount of support that they provide to avoid sending an erroneous signal to both investors and markets. Certainly, estimates of political connections during periods of rising uncertainty can be perceived as an efficacious way to accu-rately estimate the banks’ performance and can allow policymakers to design the best possible policies to increase its performance. Investors also need to carefully count for the political support and its negative effect during the crisis time. The blockade crisis has a clear significant effect on the banking sector and inflicted loss not only on Qatar but also on the boycotting countries (Lose-Lose situation).
Keywords: Political Connections, Capital Structure, Banks, Profitability, Risk, GCC
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences