The Rise and Fall of the Widely Held Firm - A History of Corporate Ownership in Canada

Randall Morck, Michael Percy, Gloria Tian, Bernard Yeung

NBER Working Paper No. 10635
Issued in July 2004
NBER Program(s):   CF

A panel of corporate ownership data, stretching back to 1902, shows that the Canadian corporate sector began the century with a predominance of large pyramidal corporate groups controlled by wealthy families or individuals. By mid-century, widely held firms predominated. But, from the 1970s on, pyramidal groups controlled by wealthy families and individuals resurge, restoring a situation similar to that a century earlier. Institutional factors underlying this resurgence are shown to have antecedents deep in the country's colonial past.

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Published: The Rise and Fall of the Widely Held Firm: A History of Corporate Ownership in Canada , Randall Morck, Michael Percy, Gloria Tian, Bernard Yeung, in A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers (2005), University of Chicago Press

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