We show that the sale of state-owned firms in dictatorships can help political corporations to emerge and persist over time. Using new data, we characterize Pinochet’s privatizations in Chile and find that some firms were sold underpriced to politically connected buyers. These newly private firms benefited financially from the Pinochet regime. Once democracy arrived, they formed connections with the new government, financed political campaigns, and were more likely to appear in the Panama Papers. These findings reveal how dictatorships can influence young democracies using privatization reforms.

中文翻译：

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政治公司私有化的起源：来自皮诺切特政权的证据

我们表明，在独裁统治下出售国有企业可以帮助政治公司随着时间的推移而出现并持续存在。使用新数据，我们描述了皮诺切特在智利的私有化，并发现一些公司被低价出售给了有政治关联的买家。这些新成立的私营公司从皮诺切特政权中获得了经济利益。一旦民主到来，他们就与新政府建立联系，资助政治运动，更有可能出现在巴拿马文件中。这些发现揭示了独裁政权如何通过私有化改革影响年轻的民主国家。