Religion, access to finance, and firm visibility

Using a panel data regression model controlling for industry, country, and year fixed effects to analyze data from 4,240 listed companies in 11 Asian countries from 2002 to 2019, this study aims to explore the relationship between religion, access to finance, and corporate visibility. The results show that firms operating in highly religious countries have better access to finance. However, this positive relationship is only statistically significant for firms with low visibility in the market. For firms with high visibility, the firm's access to finance does not depend on the level of religion in the area where the firm operates. This study contributes to the literature on the influence of an important informal institution, i.e., religion, on firms’ operation.