Corporate Ownership Around the World / Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silane, Andrei Shleifer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

La Porta, Rafael.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lopez-de-Silane, Florencio.

Shleifer, Andrei.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w6625.

NBER working paper series no. w6625

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1998.

Summary:

We present data on ownership structures of large corporations in 27 wealthy economies, making an effort to identify ultimate controlling shareholders of these firms. We find that, except in economies with very good shareholder protection, relatively few of these firms are widely-held, in contrast to the Berle and Means image of ownership of the modern corporation. Rather, these firms are typically controlled by families or the State. Equity control by financial institutions or other widely-held corporations is less common. The controlling shareholders typically have the power over firms significantly in excess of their cash flow rights, primarily through the use of pyramids and participation in management. The results suggest that the principal agency problem in large corporations around the world is that of restricting expropriation of minority shareholders by the controlling shareholders, rather than that of restricting empire building by professional managers unaccountable to shareholders.

Notes:

Print version record

June 1998.