The Identity of Corporate Ownership in the Industrialized world: Size, industry and country effects

Abstract

This paper provides a new and unique dataset, which contains information about ownership, size and industry for 6668 companies in 24 industrial countries. The shares of larger firms are more often widely held or controlled by listed non-financial companies (in particular, widely held companies) and governments. Smaller firms are more likely to have a family, an unlisted company, an institutional investor, or a bank as the dominant shareholder. Differences between countries can be large: in Italy families hold large firms, whereas in Portugal they only own small firms. Utilities are often owned by a government agency. Except for aircraft, the high-technology industries are often widely held companies.