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The Rise and Fall of the Widely Held Firm - A History of Corporate Ownership in Canada

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Author Info
Randall Morck
Michael Percy
Gloria Tian
Bernard Yeung

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Abstract

A panel of corporate ownership data, stretching back to 1902, shows that the Canadian corporate sector began the century with a predominance of large pyramidal corporate groups controlled by wealthy families or individuals. By mid-century, widely held firms predominated. But, from the 1970s on, pyramidal groups controlled by wealthy families and individuals resurge, restoring a situation similar to that a century earlier. Institutional factors underlying this resurgence are shown to have antecedents deep in the country's colonial past.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10635.

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Date of creation: Jul 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10635

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G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Mihir A. Desai & Dhammika Dharmapala & Winnie Fung, 2005. "Taxation and the Evolution of Aggregate Corporate Ownership Concentration," NBER Working Papers 11469, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Mueller, Holger M & Philippon, Thomas, 2006. "Concentrated Ownership and Labour Relations," CEPR Discussion Papers 5776, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Morck, Randall, 2006. "How to Eliminate Pyramidal Business Groups: The Double Taxation of Inter-corporate Dividends and other Incisive Uses of Tax Policy," CEI Working Paper Series 2005-15, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Yoser Gadhoum, 2006. "Power of Ultimate Controlling Owners: A Survey of Canadian Landscape," Journal of Management and Governance, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 179-204, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Randall Morck, 2009. "The Riddle of the Great Pyramids," NBER Working Papers 14858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Randall K. Morck & Lloyd Steier, 2005. "The Global History of Corporate Governance: An Introduction," NBER Working Papers 11062, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Anita Anand & Frank Milne & Lynnette Purda, 2006. "Voluntary Adoption of Corporate Governance Mechanisms," Working Papers 1112, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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