Ownership Forms and Firm Value in Chinese Corporate Governance

M08 7

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Abstract

The current literature on ownership structure of China’s publicly listed companies has been characterized by divergent conceptual descriptions and mixed empirical findings. As a result, findings on relationship between various definitions of ownership forms and firm performance are often inconsistent and not comparable across studies. This study employs an analytically more direct and empirically straightforward classification of ownership forms to investigate how ownership may affect the market valuation of the Chinese companies. We examine 308 publicly listed companies over the period of 2001-03 and find significant differences in firm value between ownership forms. Our results suggest that state ownership is less efficient than other ownership forms. Firms controlled directly or indirectly by the state often exhibit high ownership concentration and poor firm performance, whereas firms with legal-person ownership are less concentrated and able to achieve higher firm value.