IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/now/jnlcfr/104.00000028.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Problems Using Aggregate Data to Infer Individual Behavior: Evidence from Law, Finance, and Ownership Concentration

Author

Listed:
  • Holderness, Clifford G.

Abstract

Cross-country comparisons in finance use two distinct approaches. Some analyze country averages; others analyze the underlying firm-level data. The influential finding of an inverse relation between the law and ownership concentration is shown to be spurious because country averages have produced misleading results. When data from existing studies is used on a firm basis, the relation between the Anti-Director Rights Index and ownership concentration changes sign, while those involving legal origins and the Anti-Self-Dealing Index lose all significance. The results change because country averages do not control for firm-specific influences, such as firm size, and because firms from tiny countries are over weighted. The use of country averages instead of the underlying firm data is unnecessary and requires implausible assumptions. Other individual and firm-level inferences will also be unreliable when the supporting tests are based on country aggregation.

Suggested Citation

  • Holderness, Clifford G., 2016. "Problems Using Aggregate Data to Infer Individual Behavior: Evidence from Law, Finance, and Ownership Concentration," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 5(1), pages 1-40, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:now:jnlcfr:104.00000028
    DOI: 10.1561/104.00000028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/104.00000028
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1561/104.00000028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ricardo D. Brito & Paulo Sergio O. Ribeiro & Antonio Z. Sanvicente, 2021. "The Substitute Model of Dividends at Work: a change in minority shareholder protection," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_25, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    2. Abu Jalal & Shahriar Khaksari, 2020. "Cash cycle: A cross‐country analysis," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 635-671, September.
    3. Gur Aminadav & Elias Papaioannou, 2020. "Corporate Control around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1191-1246, June.
    4. Zheng, Jiayi & Zhu, Yushu, 2023. "Algorithmic trading and block ownership initiation: An information perspective," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    5. Beatty, Anne & Liao, Scott, 2020. "Alternative evidence and views on asymmetric loan loss provisioning," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    6. Yasar, Mahmut & Rejesus, Roderick M., 2020. "International linkages, technology transfer, and the skilled labor wage share: Evidence from plant-level data in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    7. Acheson, Graeme & Campbell, Gareth & Turner, John D., 2019. "Private Contracting, Law and Finance," QBS Working Paper Series 2019/05, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    8. Moshirian, Fariborz & Thi Nguyen, Thuy & Zhang, Bohui, 2022. "How does firm size explain cross-country differences in ownership concentration?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Filatotchev, Igor & Poulsen, Annette & Bell, R. Greg, 2019. "Corporate governance of a multinational enterprise: Firm, industry and institutional perspectives," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-8.
    10. Mitch Kunce, 2021. "The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: Revisited," Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(4), pages 1-1.
    11. Mitch Kunce, 2022. "The Tenuous Ecological Divorce and Unemployment Link with Suicide: A U.S. Panel Analysis 1968-2020," Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 11(3), pages 1-2.
    12. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Danlin Shen & Carl R. Chen & Xinyan Yan & Zhihong Yi, 2022. "Do credit market accessibility and legal protection shape corporate innovation?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 719-754, September.
    14. Holderness, Clifford G., 2018. "Equity issuances and agency costs: The telling story of shareholder approval around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(3), pages 415-439.
    15. Edmans, Alex & Holderness, Clifford, 2016. "Blockholders: A Survey of Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 11442, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Mitch Kunce, 2023. "Unemployment and Suicide in the United States: The Import of Addressing Cross-Sectional Dependence," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Aggregation bias; Law and finance; Ownership concentration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • 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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:now:jnlcfr:104.00000028. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lucy Wiseman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nowpublishers.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.