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Journal of Political Economy Vol. 114 No. 4 2006

Ownership Dynamics and Asset Pricing with a Large Shareholder

Peter M. DeMarzo1; Branko Urošević2,3

1 Stanford University · 2 University of Belgrade · 3 Institute of Contemporary History

Abstract

We analyze the optimal trading and ownership policy of a large shareholder who must trade off diversification and monitoring incentives. Without commitment, the problem is similar to durable goods monopoly: the share price today depends on expected future trades. We show that the large shareholder ultimately trades to the competitive price‐taking allocation, even though it entails inefficient monitoring. With continuous trading, the large shareholder trades immediately to this allocation if moral hazard is weak enough that her private valuation of a share is decreasing in her stake. Otherwise, the large shareholder adjusts her stake gradually. We consider implications for asset pricing, IPO underpricing, and lockup provisions.

DOI
10.1086/506334
Volume
114
Issue
4
Pages
774-815
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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