Ownership structure and performance: Empirical evidence from Chilean firms

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of ownership structure (represented by the concentration of the economic rights of the majority shareholder, and the affiliation to a business group) on performance. From a crosssection of publicly traded Chilean firms in the year 2000, we find evidence that the effects on performance depend on ownership concentration in a non-linear way, showing the changing balance of two opposing economic forces: value creation and value expropriation by the controlling shareholder. For the entire sample, the mere fact that a firm is owned by a business group does not affect performance.