Ownership and Control in Joint Ventures: Theory and Evidence

Ulrich Hege and Robert Hauswald

No 4056, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Joint ventures, a particularly popular form of corporate cooperation, exhibit ownership patterns that are concentrated at 50-50 or ?50 plus one share? equity allocations for a wide variety of parent firms. In this Paper, we argue that private control benefits create a discontinuity in contribution incentives around equal shareholdings that explains these two cluster points. Using data from US joint ventures, we empirically analyse the determinants of their ownership allocations and find that, consistent with our predictions, parents with similar contribution costs or a high potential for private benefits extraction prefer equal shareholdings and joint control. Similarly, parent-level spillovers make 50-50 ownership more attractive to the detriment of one-sided control while complementarities in parent contributions have the opposite effect. We also find evidence that contingent ownership arrangements such as explicit options and buyout or termination mechanisms serve to mitigate regime-specific contractual inefficiencies.

JEL-codes: D23 G32 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn and nep-ent
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4056 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Ownership and Control in Joint Ventures: Theory and Evidence (2011)
Working Paper: Ownership and control in joint ventures: theory and evidence (2002)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4056

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4056

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().