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The Origins of the German Corporation - Finance, Ownership and Control

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  • Julian Franks
  • Colin Mayer
  • Hannes Wagner

Abstract

The ownership of German corporations is quite different today from that of Anglo-American firms. How did this come about? To what extent is it attributable to regulation? A specially constructed data set on financing and ownership of German corporations from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century reveals that, as in the UK, there was a high degree of activity on German stock markets with firms issuing equity in preference to borrowing from banks, and insider and family ownership declining rapidly. However, unlike in the UK, other companies and banks emerged as the main holders of equity, with banks holding shares primarily as custodians of other investors rather than on their own account. The changing pattern of ownership concentration was therefore very different from that of the UK with regulation reinforcing the control that banks exercised on behalf of other investors. Copyright Oxford University Press Science+Business Media, LLC 2006

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Oxford University Press for European Finance Association in its journal Review of Finance.

Volume (Year): 10 (2006)
Issue (Month): 4 (December)
Pages: 537-585
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:10:y:2006:i:4:p:537-585

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References

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  1. Fohlin, Caroline, 1996. "Relationship Banking, Liquidity, and Investment in the German Industrialization," Working Papers 913, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
  2. Rafael LaPorta & Florencio Lopez de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1996. "Law and Finance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1768, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    • Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1996. "Law and Finance," NBER Working Papers 5661, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Newey, Whitney K & West, Kenneth D, 1987. "A Simple, Positive Semi-definite, Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(3), pages 703-08, May.
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  5. Caroline Fohlin, 2005. "The History of Corporate Ownership and Control in Germany," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 223-282 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Julian FRANKS & Colin MAYER & MIYAJIMA Hideaki, 2009. "Equity Markets and Institutions: The case of Japan," Discussion papers 09039, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
  2. Carsten Burhop & David Chambers & Brian Cheffins, 2011. "Is Regulation Essential to Stock Market Development? Going Public in London and Berlin, 1900-1913," Cologne Economic History papers 10, University of Cologne, Department of Economic and Business History, revised Mar 2011.
  3. Foreman-Peck, James & Hannah, Leslie, 2011. "Extreme Divorce: the Managerial Revolution in UK Companies before 1914," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2011/21, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
  4. Victor Chen & Jing Li & Daniel Shapiro, 2011. "Are OECD-prescribed “good corporate governance practices” really good in an emerging economy?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 115-138, March.
  5. Carsten Burhop & Thorsten Luebbers, 2011. "The design of licensing contracts: Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Electrical Engineering in Imperial Germany," Cologne Economic History papers 11, University of Cologne, Department of Economic and Business History, revised Jun 2011.
  6. Carsten Burhop & David Chambers & Brian Cheffins, 2011. "Is Regulation Essential to Stock Market Development? Going Public in London and Berlin, 1900-1913," Working Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2011_15, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
  7. Aldo Musacchio, 2010. "Law and Finance c. 1900," NBER Working Papers 16216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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