Using a sample of Japanese firms in the chemical industry, we show that concentrated shareholding is associated with lower expenditure on activities with scope for managerial private benefits. We interpret this as evidence of a hitherto undocumented form of monitoring by large shareholders. We...

In October 1983, following a stock market crash, the Israeli government became the owner of most of the banking system in the country. The government is now getting ready to privatize the banks. Using a simple model of imperfect competition between multiproduct banks, the paper evaluates two...