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Large shareholders’ power and the quality of corporate governance: An analysis of Brazilian firms

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  • Crisóstomo, Vicente Lima
  • Brandão, Isac de Freitas
  • López-Iturriaga, Félix Javier

Abstract

This paper analyzes the incentives of large shareholders to implement the corporate governance system that favors their interests within a framework of highly concentrated ownership and poor legal protection for investors. A metric for corporate governance based on the fulfillment of non-mandatory rules of good corporate governance is used. System GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) estimates for a balanced panel data of Brazilian firms reveal that the ownership concentration is detrimental to corporate governance quality and the quality of board composition. In accordance with the expropriation effect on principal-principal agency conflicts, by weakening the corporate governance system and board composition, large controlling shareholders may use private benefits of control. As proposed by the substitution effect, in a complementary way, controlling shareholders may renounce strong boards and directly perform management monitoring, mitigating agency conflicts with managers. Finally, the ability of large shareholders other than the main blockholder is not enough to contest his/her power to shape the corporate governance system. The work provides evidence of the prominence of the principal–principal agency problem in an emerging market, by analyzing the effect of ownership concentration over the quality of the corporate governance system, and also that other large non-controlling shareholders are not able to contest the power of the main blockholder.

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  • Crisóstomo, Vicente Lima & Brandão, Isac de Freitas & López-Iturriaga, Félix Javier, 2020. "Large shareholders’ power and the quality of corporate governance: An analysis of Brazilian firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:51:y:2020:i:c:s0275531918310997
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2019.101076
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ding, Mingfa & Shen, Mi & Suardi, Sandy, 2022. "Blockholders, tradability and information asymmetry: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    3. Feng, Yumei & Pan, Yuying & Wang, Lu & Sensoy, Ahmet, 2021. "The voice of minority shareholders: Online voting and corporate social responsibility," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Bansal, Shashank & Thenmozhi, M., 2020. "Does Concentrated Founder Ownership Affect Related Party Transactions? Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Barros, Victor & Guedes, Maria João & Santos, Joana & Sarmento, Joaquim Miranda, 2023. "Shareholder activism and firms’ performance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Li, Dong & Han, Yushu, 2023. "Media attention and large shareholders' embezzlement behavior," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate governance; Ownership concentration; Agency theory; Principal–principal agency model; Brazil;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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