FOUNDING-FAMILYOWNERSHIPAND CONTROL in public U.S. ¢rms is commonly perceivedas a less e⁄cient, or at the very least, a less pro¢table ownership structure thandispersed ownership. Fama and Jensen (1983) note that combining ownershipand control allows concentrated shareholders to exchange pro¢ts for privaterents. Demsetz (1983) argues that such owners may choose nonpecuniary con-sumption and thereby draw scarce resources away from pro¢table projects. Shlei-fer and Vishny (1997) observe that the large premiu ms associated with superior-voting shares or control rights provide evidence that controlling shareholdersseek to extract private bene¢ts from the ¢rm. More generally, ¢rms with large,undiversi¢ed owners such as founding families may forgo maxi mum pro¢ts be-cause theyare u nable to separate their ¢nancial preferences with those of outsideowners.1Families also often limit executive management positions to family