By employing a novel, hand-collected sample of withdrawn and completed share-issue privatizations (SIPs) we show that both groups undergo comparable restructuring processes over the three years preceding the event. We employ matching procedures to explicitly control for the identified...

Recent studies argue that institutional common ownership in rival firms may reduce competition in product markets. Yet, empirical evidences are mixed. I re-examine this hypothesis, documenting that competition for flows on the ground of relative performance reduces institutional investors'...

This study surveys the academic and professional literature examining the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with a focus on empirical studies. Privatisation has been instrumental in reducing state ownership in many countries and had a transforming effect on global stock markets,...

This study surveys the academic and professional literature examining the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with a focus on empirical studies. Privatisation has been instrumental in reducing state ownership in many countries and had a transforming effect on global stock markets,...

We study the relation between state ownership and cash holdings in China's share-issue privatized firms from 1993 to 2007. We find that the level of cash holdings declines as state ownership increases. This negative relation is attributable to the soft-budget constraint (SBC) inherent in state...

This study presents the first comprehensive compilation of the number of people around the world who own shares directly and indirectly. We document that at least 310 million people in 59 countries (24 developed and 35 emerging market nations) own stock directly [Table 1]. Nearly 173 million of...