Blockholdings in Europe:: An international comparison

Abstract We preview empirical work by the European Corporate Governance Network on the size of block shareholdings in Europe. The most salient finding is the extraordinarily high degree of concentration of shareholder voting power in Continental Europe relative to the U.S.A. and the U.K. Thus the relationship between large controlling shareholders and weak minority shareholders is at least as important to understand as the more commonly studied interface between management and dispersed shareholders.