The authors argue that mass privatization in the Czech Republic has spurred enterprise restructuring and that investment funds have played a key part in this outcome. Using 1992-95 data for more than 700 Czech firms, the authors find strong positive relationships between ownership concentration...

The Czech Republic's mass-privatization scheme improved the management of privatized firms by concentrating ownership. And contrary to expectations, banks with an (indirect) equity stake in a privatized firm have a positive influence on the firm's corporate governance. The Czech Republic's...

Almost universally the largest media firms are controlled by the government or by private families. Djankov, McLiesh, Nenova, and Shleifer examine patterns of media ownership in 97 countries around the world. They find that almost universally the largest media firms are controlled by the...

June 1999 - Evidence from East Asia suggests that a firm's ownership relationship with a family or bank provides insurance against the likelihood of bankruptcy during bad times, possibly at the expense of minority shareholders. Bankruptcy is more likely in countries with strong creditor rights...