The Riddle of the Great Pyramids

Abstract

Business groups inspire much confusion. To the Americans and British, capitalism forced brisk competition — maximizing efficiency. To everyone else, capitalism turned the economy over to a handful of old moneyed families. Neither side accorded the other much leeway: the Americans and Brits marveled at the conspiracy theories circulating in less enlightened parts of the world; the others marveled at the naivety of the Anglo-Saxons. Only recently has either side taken the other seriously. It turns out both are right, and capitalism is different in different countries. Remarkably, this stems largely — primarily, this article argues — from differences in corporate governance regarding pyramidal groups. Following most of the finance literature, this article defines a group as two or more listed firms under a common controlling shareholder. It says that the group is pyramidal if one listed group firm is a controlled subsidiary of another.

Keywords: business groups, capitalism, conspiracy theories, Anglo-Saxons, finance literature