We investigate the economic empowerment of founders’ wives in public Chinese family firms. We show that female cofounders hold higher voting rights when their firms are headquartered in regions where gender stereotypes rooted in local social norms are less prevalent. We also find that firms...

We use a novel dataset to follow the evolution of family ownership, firm value, and firm policies for up to 25 years post IPO. Firm value, measured by Tobin’s Q, increases as family ownership decreases over time. Firms with higher family ownership invest less in R&D and have greater R&D...

We use director elections to analyze outsider shareholder perspectives of agency problems in family firms. Compared to nonfamily firms, outsider shareholders in family firms provide weaker support for director slates proposed by the firms' nominating committees. Outside shareholder support...