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Corporate Control around the World
Author(s) -
AMINADAV GUR,
PAPAIOANNOU ELIAS
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/jofi.12889
Subject(s) - shareholder , nexus (standard) , creditor , politics , control (management) , business , formalism (music) , corporate governance , accounting , law and economics , economics , law , political science , finance , management , debt , musical , art , computer science , visual arts , embedded system
We study corporate control tracing controlling shareholders for thousands of listed firms from 127 countries over 2004 to 2012. Government and family control is pervasive in civil‐law countries. Blocks are commonplace, but less so in common‐law countries. These patterns apply to large, medium, and small firms. In contrast, the development‐control nexus is heterogeneous; strong for large but absent for small firms. Control correlates strongly with shareholder protection, the stringency of employment contracts and unions power. Conversely, the correlations with creditor rights, legal formalism, and entry regulation appear weak. These patterns support both legal origin and political theories of financial development.