The above principal-agent conflicts seem not to apply in a firm with concentrated
ownership, where the largest shareholder has effective control of the firm. La Porta et al.
(1999) contend that highly concentrated shareholdings and a predominance of controlling
ownership appear to be the norm of corporate governance worldwide. This finding is
supported by regional cross-country studies conducted later, for example, in the context
East Asia (Claessens et al., 2000) and Western Europe (Faccio and Lang, 2002).