Does common ownership really increase firm coordination?

Authors Lewellen, Lowry
Journal Journal of Financial Economics
Year 2021
Type Published Paper
Abstract A growing number of studies suggest that common ownership caused cooperation among firms to increase and competition to decrease. We take a closer look at four approaches used to identify these effects. We find that the effects that some studies have attributed to common ownership are caused by other factors, such as differential responses of firms (or industries) to the 2008 financial crisis. We propose a modification to one of the previously used empirical approaches that is less sensitive to these issues. Using this to re-evaluate the link between common ownership and firm outcomes, we find little robust evidence that common ownership affects firm behavior.
Keywords Common ownership, institutional ownership, corporate governance
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X21000982
Tags Archival Empirical  |   Manager / Firm Behavior