remainder of the paper we pay special attention to the two extreme portfolios: the "Dictatorship Portfolio" of the firms with the weakest shareholder rights (G > 14), and the "Democracy Portfolio" of the firms with the strongest shareholder rights (G < 5). These portfolios are updated at the same frequency as G.
Most of the changes in the distribution of G come from changes in the sample due to mergers, bankruptcies, and additions of new firms by the IRRC. In 1998 the sample size increased by about 25 percent, and these new firms tilted toward lower values of G. At the firm level, G is relatively stable. For individual firms the mean (absolute) change in G between publication