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This book analyzes the impacts that family control of firms has on capital structure choices, leverage and the risk of financial distress, earnings management practices, and the relation between accounting choices and firm market value. For these purposes, longitudinal data on Italian family and non-family non-financial firms are closely analyzed. The Italian setting is of special interest in this context because family businesses account for 94% of GDP, families are particularly committed to maintaining control of firms, and the economy is bank based rather than market based. The analyses draw on the socioemotional wealth approach, which emphasizes the importance of the stock of emotional value in family firms, in combination with financial theories such as Pecking Order Theory, Trade-off Theory, and Agency Theory. The findings cast significant new light on differences between family and non-family firms and the effects of different forms of family influence. The book will have broad appeal for academics, managers, practitioners, and policymakers.

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1 Introduction.- 2 Family control and capital structure choices.- 3 Family influence, leverage and probability of financial distress.- 4 Equity and bond issues and earnings management practices.- 5 Earnings management, issues and firm market value.- 6 Conclusions.

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Pietro Gottardo holds a Bachelor´s degree in Economics from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a PhD in Financial Markets from the University of Bergamo. He is currently Associate Professor of Corporate Finance in the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia. His main research interests are family firms, asset pricing, market microstructure, and risk management. His current teaching includes Corporate Finance on the undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Economics and Financial Modeling on the Master´s degree in Management.
Anna Maria Moisello graduated in Economics at the University of Pavia and received a PhD in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, where she teaches Business Administration and Managerial Accounting. She is a member of the PhD Committee in Applied Economics and Management at the Universities of Pavia and Bergamo. Her main research interests are family firms, corporate governance, and managerial accounting.

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