New Evidence on Ownership Structures in Germany

Centre for European Economic Research Working Paper No. 99-60

27 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2000

Date Written: October 1999

Abstract

Ownership structures are an important element of the theory explaining corporate governance. This study presents detailed descriptive evidence on the ownership structures of German manufacturing firms. It addresses several shortcomings of the previous German empirical literature: First, we study all legal forms of a Kapitalgesellschaft, firms that generally have a separation of ownership and control. We do not focus exclusively on the listed Ak-tiengesellschaft (AG) but include many non-listed firms. Second, we examine changes in the ownership structure. This is a new and important approach because these changes are frequently related to corporate performance. Third, we analyze the higher levels of ownership structures, i.e. ownership structures of the direct owners. Thereby we address an issue quantitatively which only recently became subject of empirical studies. Finally, we find that cross-ownership is of minor relevance in the German manufacturing sector. However, our measure of cross-ownership represents only a lower bound.

JEL Classification: G32

Suggested Citation

Koke, Jens F., New Evidence on Ownership Structures in Germany (October 1999). Centre for European Economic Research Working Paper No. 99-60, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=198929 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.198929

Jens F. Koke (Contact Author)

Allianz Group ( email )

Denmark