Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Employing merged Chinese listed firm data, Chinese custom data, and the prefecture-level clan culture data, we find a clear pattern that chairpersons who originate from a prefecture-level city with a stronger clan culture lead firms to engage in less international trade. This finding is robust to a variety of checks including using the shortest distance from the chairperson's prefecture of origin to the nearest historical Neo-Confucian Academy and the number of southward-migrating clans during the Jianyan Reign (1127–1130) in the origin prefecture as instruments. The patterns in the data highlight the importance of cultural origin in shaping individuals’ attitudes towards international trade.