Seminar (Dept. of Finance)

Theme：Conflicts in Private Family Firms

Speaker：Alminas Žaldokas, Associate Professor of Finance, HKUST

Time：2020-11-20 10:00

Address：Zoom Meeting

Language：English

Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.com.cn/j/66488695559?pwd=STkvM1VXVzQyNEdURzAvNUcwOVJTZz09

ID：664 8869 5559

password：425923

ABSTRACT： 

We use Norwegian household-level data and full structures of family relationships to understand how succession decisions are made when the family has multiple potential heirs. We argue that the decision on ownership distribution in family firms is related to the potential of future family conflicts, and that such within-family dynamics have implications for firm investment and growth. We identify the causal effect by looking at whether the founder has experienced a divorce or a separation in the distant past. We instrument the founder's divorce with the frequency of divorces in the extended family relationships outside of the nuclear family, which makes the founder's divorce more socially acceptable. Since some family conflicts are inevitable and family heirs might not be able to trade their shares, founders should consider adjusting their inheritance to minimize the possibility of heir feuds and adverse effects on firm growth.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY： 

Alminas Žaldokas is an Associate Professor of Finance at the HKUST. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from INSEAD (France). Professor Žaldokas’s research papers have been published in the leading academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Accounting Research, RAND Journal of Economics, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Financial Intermediation. His research focuses on the interaction between firm decisions in the financial and in the product markets. In particular, he studies corporate finance decisions that relate to the firm investment in innovation and the formation of collusive arrangements between firms. His work on international antitrust laws and M&A transactions was awarded Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship for the best antitrust work in 2019.