Family Ownership and Firm Performance in Chile: A Note on Martinez et al.'s Evidence

The authors revisit the evidence presented in Martinez et al. using new data and estimation techniques that take into account unobserved firm heterogeneity. The results of the earlier study are found to be robust to the new procedures because performance of family-controlled firms continues to be superior to that of nonfamily firms. The authors then add the risk dimension to the earlier analysis using a risk-adjusted return on assets (ROA) variable, and family-controlled firms again performed better. A test of the standard deviations of ROA for both firm categories revealed that family-controlled firms not only perform better but also show less volatility in their returns.