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Shareholder Power and Corporate Governance

Author

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  • Leech, D.

Abstract

The pattern of ownership and control of British industry is unusual compared with most other countries in that ownership is relatively dispersed. Typically the largest shareholder in any large listed company is likely to own a voting minority of the shares. Majority ownership by a single shareholder is unusual. It is not uncommon for the largest shareholding to be under 20 percent and in many cases it is much less than that. A broadly similar pattern is observed in the USA. Two inferences about corporate governance are conventionally drawn from this, following the early work of Berle and Means: (1) All but the very largest shareholders are typically too small to have any real incentive to participate in decision making; (2) All but the very largest shareholdings are too small to have any real voting power. The question of voting power is the focus of this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Leech, D., 2000. "Shareholder Power and Corporate Governance," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 564, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:564
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    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/workingpapers/2008/twerp564a.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Georgeta Vintila & tefan Cristian Gherghina, 2015. "Does Ownership Structure Influence Firm Value? An Empirical Research towards the Bucharest Stock Exchange Listed Companies," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 501-514.
    2. Yener Altunbaş & Alper Kara & Adrian van Rixtel, 2007. "Corporate governance and corporate ownership: The investment behaviour of Japanese institutional investors," Occasional Papers 0703, Banco de España.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    OWNERSHIP ; SHAREHOLDERS ; VOTING;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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