| dc.description.abstract | To date little is known about how long equity ownership lasts, what determines its length, and
whether ownership duration is related to rm performance. Using a unique time series of equity holdings
over eleven years, we nd that on average the rm's largest owner stays less than three years and stays
longer than owners with smaller stakes. The duration of nancial institutions and foreigners is shorter
than that of individuals and industrial rms. We show that ownership duration is duration dependent
as the probability of closing an equity position is a function of how long the owner has held the stake.
Ownership duration appears to match the duration of the rm's investment projects. We nd no evidence
that large owners vote by foot in the sense that bad news about earnings leads to duration ending. There
is a negative relationship between ownership duration and a rm's performance in general, but the sign
and strength of this relationship di ers across owner types. Long duration by nancial institutions and
industrial corporations is negatively related to performance, whereas the opposite is true for individuals.
This suggests that long term ownership may improve rm performance if the monitoring is direct as
opposed to delegated. | no_NO |
