Corporate Ownership and Antitrust Violations

Abstract

We study the relationship between corporate ownership and anticompetitive actions. Using data from Italy, we find that family firms are less likely than other firms to be involved in antitrust indictments. This result holds controlling for several factors which are different across family and nonfamily firms and may, in turn, correlate with anticompetitive behavior. Family control reduces the likelihood of antitrust indictments especially among larger companies, which are generally more likely to be prosecuted. However, conditional on being prosecuted, family firms face the same likelihood of monetary sanctions than nonfamily firms. Collectively, our results provide new insights on the role of corporate ownership for firms’ anticompetitive behavior.

Keywords: antitrust violation; corporate ownership; investment; financing

JEL Classification: D22; K21; G34; G38