Hutton, Jiang, and Kumar (2012)

Hutton, Irena, Danling Jiang, and Alok Kumar.  “Political Values, Culture, and Corporate Litigation.”  Working paper (The Florida State University), June 11, 2012.

From the authors' abstract:  "Using one of the largest samples of litigation data to date, we examine whether the political culture of a firm determines its propensity for corporate misconduct. Our measure of political culture is based on the political contributions of individuals within a firm and the local neighborhood. We find that, consistent with the Democratic ideology that places greater value on equal opportunity, humanitarianism, and protection of the environment, firms with Democratic culture are less likely to be the subject of environmental, labor, or civil rights-related litigation. In contrast, consistent with the core Republican value of self-reliance that supports business, property rights, market discipline, and limited government regulation, firms with Republican culture are less likely to be the subject of litigation related to securities fraud and intellectual property rights violations."

Link:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1573167