Almeida, Heitor; Park, Sang Yong; Subrahmanyam, Marti G.; … - In: Journal of Financial Economics 99 (2011) 2, pp. 447-475
We study the evolution of Korean chaebols (business groups) using ownership data. Chaebols grow vertically (as pyramids) when the controlling family uses well-established group firms ("central firms") to acquire firms with low pledgeable income and high acquisition premiums. Chaebols grow...