Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms

I use a unique sample of 617 U.S. firms adopting the dual class structures for at least a period of their lifetime from 1994 to 2013 to examine the relation between the presence of disproportional voting rights and outside shareholder wealth. I find that the presence of restricted-voting shares is i...

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Main Author: Luo, Jiannan
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50862/
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author Luo, Jiannan
author_facet Luo, Jiannan
author_sort Luo, Jiannan
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description I use a unique sample of 617 U.S. firms adopting the dual class structures for at least a period of their lifetime from 1994 to 2013 to examine the relation between the presence of disproportional voting rights and outside shareholder wealth. I find that the presence of restricted-voting shares is insignificantly related to the buy-and-hold-abnormal returns for the windows of 1-, 3- and 5-year after the initial public offerings. In addition, the presence of dual class structures would reduce a firm’s probability of being taken over by around 20% but would not increase the amount of takeover premium conditional on the successful takeover. Theses empirical findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction that dual class structures may have both positive and negative impact upon shareholder wealth and it is difficult to tell whether the positive or the negative impact prevails. Practically, the finding implies that, for policy makers, the decisions to allow for or abolish dual class structures may depend on the country’s legal environment.
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spelling nottingham-508622025-02-28T14:03:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50862/ Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms Luo, Jiannan I use a unique sample of 617 U.S. firms adopting the dual class structures for at least a period of their lifetime from 1994 to 2013 to examine the relation between the presence of disproportional voting rights and outside shareholder wealth. I find that the presence of restricted-voting shares is insignificantly related to the buy-and-hold-abnormal returns for the windows of 1-, 3- and 5-year after the initial public offerings. In addition, the presence of dual class structures would reduce a firm’s probability of being taken over by around 20% but would not increase the amount of takeover premium conditional on the successful takeover. Theses empirical findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction that dual class structures may have both positive and negative impact upon shareholder wealth and it is difficult to tell whether the positive or the negative impact prevails. Practically, the finding implies that, for policy makers, the decisions to allow for or abolish dual class structures may depend on the country’s legal environment. 2018-07-18 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50862/1/Jiannan%27s%20PhD%20Thesis.pdf Luo, Jiannan (2018) Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Dual class stocks Stockholder wealth Corporations United States
spellingShingle Dual class stocks
Stockholder wealth
Corporations
United States
Luo, Jiannan
Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title_full Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title_fullStr Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title_full_unstemmed Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title_short Disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the US dual class firms
title_sort disproportional voting rights and shareholder wealth: the evidence from the us dual class firms
topic Dual class stocks
Stockholder wealth
Corporations
United States
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50862/