Investors have too often extrapolated from recent experience. In the 1950s, who but the most rampant optimist would have dreamt that over the next fifty years the real return on equities would be 9% per year? Yet this is what happened in the U.S. stock market. The optimists triumphed. However,...

This paper examines the relationship between the ownership structure and the stock returns for a sample of 195 companies listed on the Swiss Exchange for the period 2003-2013. The distinction is made between family firms, widely held firms and those owned by another blockholder, as well as...