DBJ Discussion Paper Series, No.1001

Why Do Shareholders Value Marriage?

Pramuan Bunkanwanicha
ESCP EuropeJoseph P.H. Fan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Yupana Wiwattanakantang
Hitotsubashi University

June



2010



ESCP Europe, 79 avenue de la République 75011 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 49 23 58 03;
Fax: +33 1 49 23 20 80; E-mail: pbunkanwanicha@escpeurope.eu


The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Business Administration, Shatin,
N.T., Hong Kong. Tel: +852 26097839; Fax: +852 26035114; E-mail: pjfan@cuhk.edu.hk
Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo
186-8603 Japan. Tel: +81 42 580 8374; Fax: +81 42 580 8333; E-mail: yupana@gmail.com
We thank Franklin Allen, Sridhar Arcot, Morten Bennedsen, Sea-Jin Chang, Andrew Ellul,
Cesare Fracassi, Gopalan Radhakrishnan, Denis Gromb, Jonathan Karpoff, Tarun Khanna,
Meziane Lasfer, Jeffrey Pontiff, Ronald Masulis, Randall Morck, Harold Mulherin, Andreas
Savva, Jordan Siegel, Sheridan Titman, Yishay Yafeh, David Yermack, and seminar
participants at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dauphine University, Harvard
Business School, Université de Bourgogne, the 2007 LBS/ECGI/ESRC conference, the 2nd
EMG conference, the 2008 FIRS conference, the 2008 EFA meeting, the 2009 WFA meeting,for helpful comments.
Discussion Papers are a series of preliminary materials in their draft form. No quotations,reproductions or circulations should be made without the written consent of the authors inorder to protect the tentative characters of these papers. Any opinions, findings,
conclusions or recommendations expressed in these papers are those of the authors and do
not reflect the views of the Institute.

Why Do Shareholders Value Marriage?

Pramuan Bunkanwanicha
ESCP Europe

Joseph P.H. Fan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Yupana Wiwattanakantang
Hitotsubashi University

April 21, 2010==Preliminary Draft==Comments are welcome

ESCP Europe, 79 avenue de la République 75011 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 49 23 58 03; Fax:
+33 1 49 23 20 80; E-mail: pbunkanwanicha@escpeurope.eu
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Business Administration, Shatin, N.T.,
Hong Kong. Tel: +852 26097839; Fax: +852 26035114; E-mail: pjfan@cuhk.edu.hk
Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo 1868603 Japan. Tel: +81 42 580 8374; Fax: +81 42 580 8333; E-mail: yupana@gmail.com
We thank Franklin Allen, Sridhar Arcot, Morten Bennedsen, Sea-Jin Chang, Andrew Ellul, Cesare Fracassi, Gopalan Radhakrishnan, Denis Gromb, Jonathan Karpo¤, Tarun Khanna, Meziane
Lasfer, Je¤rey Ponti¤, Ronald Masulis, Randall Morck, Harold Mulherin, Andreas Savva, Jordan
Siegel, Sheridan Titman, Yishay Yafeh, David Yermack, and seminar participants at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Dauphine University, Harvard Business School, Singapore Management
University, Université de Bourgogne, the 2008 FIRS conference, the 2008 EFA meeting, the 2009
WFA meeting, and the 2009 FMA meeting for helpful comments.

Why Do Shareholders Value Marriage?
Abstract
This paper studies the role of marriage in family …rms using a rare dataset from Thailand
during 1991-2006. Interestingly, the stock prices of the family …rms react positively to theweddings which connect the family to other business leaders and politicians. Abnormal
returns are higher in particular for the …rms whose operations depend on state concessions
or on having extensive networks for obtaining reliable information such as in the realestate sector. The results also show that horizontal and vertical integration can be anotherpotential source of value gains from these "network" marriages. Our evidence does notsupport the argument that marriages are motivated by succession concerns.
JEL classi…cation: G15; G32; G34; G38; K23; M13
Keywords: family …rm, marriage, networks, emerging markets

Then we will give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters tous, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. [Genesis 34:16]

1

Introduction

Marriage is an event of great economic signi…cance (see Becker 1973 1974). In business families, marriage has long been deemed an important family and business decision. Scholars
in business history have noted that families have typically been involved in the matchingprocess to ensure suitable matches that would serve the house.1 James (2006) writes that"families looked to dynastic marriage strategies to …nd greater wealth and power" (p. 39).
Landes (2006), who studies 11 business dynasties in Europe, Japan, and America from the17th century to the present, goes so far as to suggest that marriage, among other familya¤airs, determines the growth, direction, and survival of the family’s business.
While marriage has been widely cited as vital to business success, little empirical evidence has been examined beyond anecdotes and case studies. Moreover, the fact thatfamily …rms are a prevalent organizational structure worldwide2 emphasizes the need to
conduct an economic analysis on the role of marriage in family …rms. This paper examines
several potential reasons why marriage is important to family …rms and how it might a¤ect…rm value.
Establishment of business networks. Marriage connects a son of one family with adaughter of another. Marriage, therefore, cements existing relationships or creates newalliances. Today, even though love marriage is the norm; a union with a person from a"distinguished" family usually pleases the patriarch. A good example is the Lee family
1

For example, Molho (1994) writing about marriages in late medieval Florence states that “marriage
did not happen in a haphazard fashion; certainly they were not the outcomes of whims, infatuations, or
personal preferences. A complex and precise calculus was at work, most especially when marriage set up
relations between families in command of capital of material.”
2
Family …rms account for about 45% of publicly traded …rms around the world (La Porta, Lopez-deSilanes, and Shleifer 1999). Even in the U.S. family …rms account for about 37% of Fortune 500 (Anderson
and Reeb 2003) and a majority of Computstat …rms (Villalonga and Amit 2009).

1

behind the Samsung group, the biggest chaebol (business group) in Korea. Via multiple marriages of sons and daughters, the chaebol has connected with the country’s inner
circles, namely the other four chaebols (LG, Hyundai, Kolon, and Poonsan) and manyhigh ranking politicians, including former presidents, a number of ruling party leaders, andprovincial governors (Kim 1996). Big business marriages that connect families to otherin‡uential families are also observed worldwide (see Appendix 1). Family alliances may
entail some distribution of capital (Balmori, Voss, Wortman 1984), information (McMillan
and Woodru¤ 1999), know-how (Ingram and Simons 2002), and access to state contracts(Morck, Wolfenzon, and Yeung 2005).
Succession and inheritance. A twentieth-century Hambros Bank Chairman once said
"our job is to breed wisely" (Chernow 2001, p.20). Marriage plays an important role inensuring that wealth is handed down to the next generations. Marriage brings in "talented
new sons (-in-law)" when families lack capable heirs –a strategy pursued by the Japanese
for a thousand years. Marriage can also help to discipline apparent successors. In otherwords, marriage can cause young men to settle down and take their responsibilities more
seriously. Finally, cousin marriage is preferred as one can "keep the money inside thefamily" as did the Rothschilds and the Du Ponts (Ferguson 1999; Winkler 1935).
Thailand is the empirical setting for our examination of the value of marriage to business. As in many Asian countries, a striking feature of Thailand is strong family relationships bound by blood and marriages. Figure 1 shows the web of the biggest networks
centered on the Lamsam family, a business dynasty. These wide networks connected bymultiple marriages comprise 56 families including big businesses, royals and high-rankingo¢ cials. Marriage ties appear to provide important networks for running business.3
The unique research setting of Thailand also meets the basic requirements of the standard event study approach. First, high society weddings are public information available
3

In Korea, around 33.1% of the chaebol families are connected with top politicians via marriages of thefounders’daughters (Feenstra and Hamilton 2006; Han 2008).

2

in a daily column of Thairat, which is the national newspaper ranked …rst by circulation –at least one million copies sold across the country. Second, its reporting policy reduces any
concerns about the sample selection. It collects and publishes wedding news systematicallyand independently of the families’interests. Its coverage is also comprehensive. Third, thewedding information is timely. Typically wedding news is published a day or so after the
reception. Fourth, Thai traditional values make the wedding the "real" event of marriage
as cohabiting couples are regarded as a taboo. The common practice of having the engagement and the wedding take place on the same day should also reduce the concern of news
leakages. Finally, the wedding date is typically chosen by the family’s astrologer, whichmakes the event date exogenous to other important corporate decisions such as earnings
results.
We focus on 131 weddings related to Thai big business families during 1991-2006. We
examine the reaction of investors to the wedding news. Interestingly, the families’publicly
traded stocks react positively to the weddings if the partner is from a business or politicalfamily. These "network" marriages are associated with a 11-day cumulative abnormal
return (CAR) 2.3% higher than that of "non-network" marriages. Strikingly, 49 of the 52
families involved in industries where operations depend on networks and connections such as
the concession, property and construction businesses, engaged in network marriages. Thesemarriages earned a premium as measured by an 11-day CAR of about 3%. Finally, investors
reacted positively to the marriages that may lead to horizontal and vertical integration
among the …rms owned by the two connected families. Overall, these results suggest that
networks may provide insightful and reliable information on potential supply and demand,state lobbying, and political rents. These results are consistent with the network hypothesis.
We do not …nd evidence that supports the succession and inheritance reasons, however.
Our …ndings, that marriage can help family …rms in Thailand set up networks, support
the arguments of La Porta et al. (1999) and Burkart, Panunzi, and Shleifer (2003). As3

the marriage contract binds a couple for their lifetime, marriage creates relationships oftrust between the related families (e.g., Becker, Landes, and Michael 1977). Similar toblood ties which are determined by birth, marriage connections may substitute for missing
institutions and serve to guarantee economic transactions in developing economies.
This paper is also part of the growing literature on family …rms which examines therole of family norms in shaping corporate organization, governance and performance. In
particular, Bennedsen, Nielson, Perez-Gonzales, and Wolfenzon (2007) report that marital
status can a¤ect the choice of CEOs: family succession is less likely when departing CEOs
have multiple marriages, presumably to avoid family feuding. Several papers report thatfamily structures and incentives a¤ect family …rms’ policies and performance. Bertrand,
Johnson, Samphantharak, and Schoar (2008) …nd that the scope of a business group is
positively related to the number of sons in the controlling family. They also …nd that thehealth conditions of family members matter to CEO performance. Several other studies
report that family …rm policy and performance are related to family decisions such as
inheritance (Ellul, Pagano, and Panunzi 2010) and successor choices (Morck, Strangeland,
and Yeung 2000; Perez-Gonzales 2006; Bertrand and Schoar 2006; Bloom and van Reenen2007).
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides the institutional background of marriage and family in Thailand. Section 3 outlines the conceptual framework.
Section 4 describes the data and methodology. Section 5 reports the empirical results.
Section 6 investigates the sources of value gains. Section 7 concludes.

2

Marriage and family in Thailand

The Thais have close family ties. Families’ mutual support and in‡uence are enormous.
Parents are involved in almost every aspect of their children’s life, such as education, career4and marriage decisions, and remain involved in their life after the marriage. As in manyother Asian cultures, Thai children are raised from youth to respect and honor their parents
as the most sacred people in their lives. This upbringing results from the Thai belief thatparents have done them the biggest favor possible by giving them life and raising them toadulthood. This gratitude is called "Boon Khun". Therefore, children should be gratefulto their parents and must ful…ll …lial duties. This means that children have to obey theirparents, respect their wishes during their lifetime and care for them when they get old.
Breaking this rule is regarded as sinful.
A wedding is a very important event for a family in Thailand. When a young man
wishes to marry a young woman, he has to become well acquainted with the entire familyof the bride-to-be and get their approval. His family often includes not only his parents
and siblings but also extended family members. The same practice applies to the woman
as well. A marriage without the family’s blessing is likely to face enormous di¢ culties as
the couple interacts with the extended family in future economic or domestic issues. Only
after obtaining consent from both families will the parents of the young man delegate arespected person to ask the woman’s parents for the hand of their daughter.
When both families agree on the wedding expenses and the bride price, the date for thewedding will be …xed. As the Thais are generally superstitious on important matters suchas weddings; the wedding cannot take place just any month of the year or even any day ortime. Astrologers or monks whom the families respect are consulted to select an auspicious
time and date usually in even-numbered lunar calendar months.
The groom’s family usually hosts most of the ceremonies and pays for all the arrangements for large numbers of guests, including feasting, decorations, and gifts for the groom’s
party. These arrangements are often extremely elaborate and expensive and are intended
to enhance the status of the families. After the bride and groom are united in sacred rites
attended by their families, the couple can then live together.

5

Divorce was traditionally considered to be socially unacceptable in Thailand. As inother countries, the attitude toward divorce has changed over time, however. According
to Thailand’s national statistics, the average rate of divorce was low, less than one per
1,000 in 1994, but went up to 1.28 by 2003. Despite this increase, the divorce rate is much
lower than that of most other countries.4 The low divorce rate indicates a continuationof strong family values. In addition, it shows that a Thai marriage creates a long-lastingbond between the two families.

3

The value of marriage in family …rms

In this section, we discuss the following two reasons why marriage might a¤ect the family’sbusiness.

3.1

Establishment of networks

As in many Asian countries, marriage is not only the union of the two individuals but
represents a merging of the two families (and extended families). So via the marriage ofa son and a daughter, the two families are connected. By design, marriage is a life-longcontract so it binds the two individuals and their families together for their lifetime. Marriage contracts often make divorce a di¢ cult option as they can only be broken in extreme
circumstances. The couple, therefore, are locked into this relationship for their lifetime.
The presence of children further reinforces and stabilizes the gains from maintaining therelationship (Pollak 1985). Thus, marriage creates a life-long commitment (Becker et al.
1977). In addition, the families have incentives to trust each other as their sons/daughtersand their grandchildren are regarded as "hostages" in a marriage (Williamson 1983). Thus,
4

The divorce rate is 2.08 per 1,000 in Japan in 2004, 2.9 per 1,000 in South Korea in 2004, 2.36 per
1,000 in Sweden in 2003, 2.8 per 1,000 in the U.K. in 2003, and 4 per 1,000 in the U.S. in 2003 . The data
are obtained from United Nations, Demographic Yearbook (2003) and the Japanese Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare, Demographic Statistics (2005).

6

marriage creates a relationship of trust between the two families on a secure and long-termbasis. Arguably, marriage creates a stronger form of connections than those created via
friendship, partnership, or directorship of a corporate board.
The characteristics of family ties
More generally, marriage and other close family relationships are characterized by higher
levels of trust and empathy as well as reciprocity, which do not exist in relationships
established for purely instrumental purposes (Granovetter 1985). Family ties facilitatee¤ective monitoring due to their frequent and intimate interaction. Families also have anumber of sanctioning parties and an arsenal of penalties for improper practices. Therefore,family ties ensure community enforcement of contracts and are associated with a higher
level of cooperation. Due to these unique characteristics, economists argue that family
relationships in business can be regarded as the next-best solution to imperfections in…nancial markets and corporate governance (Burkart et al. 2003; Caselli and Gennaioli2005).
The value of family networks
As discussed above, marriage creates a stable form of alliance, just as a merger combines
the operation of two …rms under the same roof. Family networks, including those built by
marriages, can be valuable to the …rms for several reasons. First, they provide high-quality
and reliable information, knowledge, and technology (McMillan and Woodru¤ 1999; Ingramand Simons 2002). Second, speci…c family members are an important source of reputation
capital in product, input, and political markets (Granovetter 1985; Greif 1993). Third, via
family networks, a family fortune can be enlarged and transferred (Balmori et al. 1984;
Lomnitz and Perez-Lizaur 1987; Grassby 2000). Family members may share the family’spool of …nancing, human resources, and other privileges.

7In summary, the combined reputation and resources of the connected families provide
credible guarantees in business dealings with stakeholders (such as regulators, suppliers andcustomers), hence making the transactions self-enforcing (Klein and Le¤er 1981). Family
networks thus help maintain mutual interests and even eliminate competition.
Abundant anecdotal evidence supports this hypothesis. The Medici, the wealthiest
house in Renaissance Italy, provide the …nest example from European history. The Medici
were connected through several marriages with almost all the in‡uential families of thetime including merchant houses, aristocracies, and royals namely the Habsburg, Toledo,
and French royals. Such well-crafted networks were regarded as instrumental in their rise
to power (Padgett and Ansell 1993). In the U.K., Ingram and Lifshcitz (2006) show thatfamily ties led to a sharing of managerial ideas, technology and human resources amongleading shipbuilders on the Clyde River. This close collaboration helped them become theworld’s most famous shipbuilders from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

3.2

Succession and inheritance

To ensure the longevity of the family business, the patriarch must select the best andbrightest of their families to take up the reins of the business. Marriage plays several
potential roles in the succession task. As the most important qualities that characterizee¤ective leaders include integrity, maturity, business acumen and social skills (Charan andColvin 1999), having capable heirs depends a lot on having a "good" partner for his/her
genes and the ability to educate the next generation heirs. Moreover, whenever the familylacks talented biological heirs, marriage can help bring in the needed talent, i.e., sonsin-law. An aggressive version of engaging sons-in-law is adopting a son-in-law as a newson – a strategy commonly used in Japanese …rms for more than a century (Mehrotra ,Morck, Shim, and Wiwattanakantang 2010) namely pre-war Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, andYasuda zaibatsu, Toyota Motors, Kajima Construction (one of the world’s largest general8construction companies) and Suzuki Motors.
Marriage can also be a means to discipline successors. In many cultures, marriage isthought of as the great watershed in life, marking the transition to adulthood or maturity(Arnett 2004). It is a rite of passage that marks the beginning of an individual’s separationfrom the parental family unit. Marriage forces young sons to establish their own family
and become fathers. Thus, marriage cuts o¤ the opportunities to enjoy personal freedom.
As shown by a number of anecdotes, after getting married the heir apparent gives up a lifeof leisure to work hard.
Finally, cousin marriages have been carried out to keep wealth in the family in many
dynasties. The Rothchilds arranged marriages over a few generations between cousins,
cross-cousins, and even between uncles and nieces (Ferguson 1999). Other families thatfavored cousin marriages are the Haniels, Wendels, Du Ponts, and the Mitsui and Sumitomo zaibatsu in pre-war Japan (Winkler 1935; Roberts 1973; James 2006). Even today,
marriage between close-kin is preferred in many societies such as Muslims and the Southern
community in India.

4

Data and Methodology

4.1

Data

We construct databases to investigate the value of marriages. Since our analysis requires
stock prices to examine the stock market reaction, the sample has to include publicly listed…rms. Our focuses, therefore, are on the weddings that are engaged by the families thatown at least one listed …rm (henceforth, big businesses). The period of study covers theyears from 1991 to 2006. The …nancial and stock price data are taken from the SETSMART
online service and Datastream. All remaining data are hand-collected described below.

94.1.1

Ownership

In the …rst phase, we identify the ultimate owners of listed …rms using several data sources.
The main databases are the I-SIM CD-ROM and the SETSMART online service which
are produced by the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). These two datasets contain theinformation from the company annual reports (FM 56-1) of all publicly traded companies
in Thailand. For a given company, we obtain ownership data including (1) shareholders
with stakes of at least 0.5% and (2) a list of the company’s a¢ liated companies and its
shareholdings in these companies. We supplement the ownership data of non-listed companies using the Business On Line (BOL) database produced by Business On Line. The BOL
database contains the accounting and ownership information of all registered companies
which were submitted to the Ministry of Commerce. The company had a license from the
Ministry to reproduce and commercialize such information.
We trace the ultimate owners using the standard approach suggested by the literature(La Porta et al. 1999; Claessens, Djankov, and Lang 2000; Faccio and Lang 2002). An
ultimate owner is de…ned as the largest shareholder who owns more than 10% of the …rm.
Our results are similar when we increase this cut-o¤ to 20%. As it turns out, there are only
a few ultimate shareholders who own less than 20%. As our focuses are on family …rms, oursample …rms include the …rms where the ultimate controlling shareholder is an individual
or a family. In determining the controlling shareholder, we treat the following shareholders
as one single shareholder: (1) individuals who are the members of the founding family and(2) companies that have the founding family as the ultimate shareholder. The membersof the founding family are treated as a single shareholder because of strong family ties inThailand. The founding family includes the founder, his wife, children and their spouse(s),and grandchildren and their spouse(s) as well as the founder’s siblings, their spouse(s), andchildren.

104.1.2

Family trees

In the second phase, we trace the members of the founding family from various sources.
First, we use surnames. Surnames in Thailand are unique by law and only individuals
belonging to a given family can use that particular name. Then, for each family member,
we collect information on his/her speci…c position in the family tree, gender, and birthorder (de…ned as the rank of children within a speci…c marriage). This information ishand-collected from various sources. The main data source is the cremation volumes thatare published and distributed as gifts on the occasion of cremation ceremonies. The datafrom these booklets includes the biography of the deceased, the names, gender, and date ofbirth of his or her parents, siblings, spouse(s), children and grandchildren. Many bookletsof the founders/leaders of business groups include detailed genealogical diagrams of thefamily and their related families. These booklets are obtained from the National Libraryof Thailand (which receives copies of almost all booklets published in the country).
The second data source is company annual reports (FM 56-1) of listed …rms. As one of
the stock exchange’s requirements, all listed …rms disclose the family relationships between
major shareholders and board members. In addition, the dates of birth of the board
members are collected from this data source.
Additional information is obtained from other sources. Brooker Group (2001) andSappaiboon (2000, 2001) provide the family backgrounds of the top 100 families such as
the names of the founder, his spouse, children and siblings. Polsiri and Wiwattanakantang(2006) provide the information on the families-in-law of top business groups.

4.1.3

Weddings

In the third phase, we hand-collect the wedding information. The main data source isthe country’s most widely-circulated newspaper, Thairath. which has a long history of
publishing a daily column on high society weddings on page 4. This well-established column
11publishes at least one wedding a day. It provides a color picture taken at the wedding
reception which is often held at a luxury hotel. The photo typically shows the couple,
their parents, and the most distinguished guests (e.g., royals and top business and politicalleaders). From this column, we collect the names of the bride, groom, their parents, thedate of the wedding reception and the date when the news was published in this column.
We gather the wedding news from January 1, 1991 to December 31, 2006 from thenewspaper micro…lm collections available at the National Library of Thailand. There area total of 2,225 weddings. Then, we match the names of the newlyweds with the names ofthe members of the founding families of the listed …rms in the sample.

4.2

Methodology

We examine the stock market responses to the wedding news. If the marriage of the businessowner’s o¤spring bene…ts the …rm, for example if it helps establish a new business network,
we should observe signi…cant positive abnormal returns around the wedding event. On
the other hand, if the marriage is irrelevant to the family’s business or not important for
the …rm’s prospects, no signi…cant change in market valuation around the event should beobserved.
Event-study methodology (Brown and Warner 1985) is employed to calculate cumulative
market-model abnormal returns (CARs) around the event date. The event date (t=0) is
de…ned as the immediate trading day after the wedding news is published in the newspaper,
Thairath. This is the day when the wedding information becomes public. The results are
similar when the wedding reception date is used as the event date, however.
Daily stock returns (dividend adjusted) are employed for the calculation of CARs. For
a given event period, CAR is computed as a …rm’s equity return minus an estimated return
based on the market model and summed over the event period. To obtain OLS estimates ofthe market model parameters, we regress a …rm’s returns on market index returns during a12200 trading-day window from days -230 to -31 prior to each event date. The Stock Exchangeof Thailand value-weighted market index is used as a proxy for the market index.
We employ several event windows to account for the possibility that stock prices react
to wedding well before the event date. Basically, the event windows are several sub-periods
between 30 trading days before to 30 trading days after the event date. The 30 trading
days prior to the event date is chosen based on the invitation custom in Thailand. An
invitation card is typically sent out to the guests less than one month before the wedding
reception.
There may be some concerns that the stock price e¤ect of a wedding might be underestimated if the wedding news is anticipated. Wedding anticipation can be formed fromnews about dating and engagement. While dating indicates a close relationship, a dating
couple does not necessarily end up getting married. Dating news, therefore, is not totally
reliable and can even be noisy information. An engagement, if held far in advance of thewedding, could probably cause the news leakage problem and hence would bias our estimation results. Fortunately, this is not the case in Thailand. These days, the engagement
and wedding typically take place on the same day.
The test statistic under the null hypothesis of zero CARs is computed for each sample
following Brown and Warner (1985). More speci…cally, the test statistic is the ratio of theaverage CAR to its standard error, estimated from the time-series of average abnormal
returns. This test accounts for cross-sectional dependence in abnormal returns. Abnormal
returns relating to a wedding are calculated at the family level.

5

Results

We begin the analysis by examining who the marriage partner is in each wedding. Then
we investigate the market reactions to the weddings.

13

5.1

Do marriages add value to family …rms?

5.1.1

The weddings

Table 1 presents the number of wedding events in our sample over the 15 years from 1991 to2006. There are 131 weddings, involving 91 big business families controlling publicly traded
companies. Our sampling criteria dictate that at lease one side of the wedding couple is froma big business family. Among the weddings, 9 are cases where both the bride and groom
are from big business families. The wedding events are smoothly distributed throughout
the period of our study, though slightly more numerous in 2005. The year of the Asian…nancial crisis (1997) has the fewest (3 observations).
[Insert Table 1 here]

5.1.2

Who are the wedding partners?

For each marrying business family member, we classify his/her partner in one of the following categories: (1) royals and nobles, (2) politicians, high-ranking civil servants andmilitary o¢ cers, (3) big businesses, (4) other business, (5) foreigners, (6) others. Other
business families (4) are de…ned as the families who own at least one company in the listof the 2,000 largest companies but are not "big businesses." In other words, these families
do not own any listed …rms.
We consider that a marriage contributes to a family’s business in terms of network formation when the marriage partner is from an in‡uential family. These "network marriages"
are further classi…ed into business networks and political networks. Networks are deemed
political when the partner is from a royal or politician family, i.e., categories (1) and (2).
Business networks are when the partner is from one of the business families (categories (3)and (4)). Non-network marriages are de…ned as the marriages in which the partner is notfrom a political or business family (categories (5) and (6)). These marriages will not result14

in the family and their …rms being connected to new business or political circles.
There are nine weddings in which the bride and the groom are both from big businessfamilies (category (3)). Because our sampling scheme only requires one side to be big
business, we e¤ectively count each of these weddings twice, which means that we have 18
observations for these 9 marriages.
Astonishingly, about 78.6% of the 140 pairings are network marriages (Table 2). Specifically, 66 marriages connect family …rms to business networks and 44 marriages connect…rms to political networks. The remaining 30 cases constitute our benchmark of nonnetwork marriages because the partner is not from either business or political circles. Suchpartners include actresses, singers, television newscasters, former beauty contest winners,
and university professors.
[Insert Table 2 here]

5.1.3

Market reaction to wedding news

We address the question of whether marriages add value to family …rms by examining market investors’reactions to the weddings. The …rms are classi…ed into two groups based on
the wedding partner’s background as described in Section 5.1.2. More speci…cally, these
two groups are marriages that are associated with in‡uential families (network marriages)
and those that are not (non-network marriages). Figure 2 presents the CARs from 30 days
prior to the event date (-30) to 30 days immediately after the event date (+30). Interestingly, investors respond positively to the wedding news only in the network marriages; but
are not interested in non-network marriages. The conspicuous pattern occurs from about…ve days before the event date (-5), to the set of …rms associated with network marriages.
Their average CAR continues rising throughout the 30 days after the event date. For nonnetwork marriages, however, the evidence of positive abnormal returns is strikingly absent.
As shown in Table 3, the estimated average 7-day (from -3 to +3), 11-day (-5 to +5), and15

61-day (-30 to +30) CARs for these …rms are even negative but statistically insigni…cant.
The patterns of the CARs indicate that the stock market reacts positively to wedding newsof network marriages, providing initial support to the argument that networks create value
for family …rms.
Note that the two groups of …rms have a similar pattern of abnormal returns until
around …ve days before the event date (-5). Then, the …rms associated with network
marriages outperform the …rms associated with non-network marriages throughout the restof the observation period. The persistent di¤erence in CAR between the two sub-samples
suggests that the stock outperformance subsequent to the wedding events is not primarily
due to the mean-reversion in long horizon returns on individual stocks (DeBondt and Thaler(1985, 1987)), otherwise stock return reversal of the network marriage sub-sample should
be observed subsequent to the wedding events.
[Insert Figure 2]

5.2

Does marriage create networks?

Table 3 reports the results of a series of univariate tests of the statistical signi…canceof CARs within and between sub-samples. First, network marriages are associated withpositive abnormal returns. The average 7-day, 11-day and 61-day CARs for the …rms thatbelonged to the families are about 1.40%, 2.04%, and 3.77% respectively5 , all signi…cantlydi¤erent from zero at the 1% level. In addition, network marriage generates a premium
when compared with non-network marriage. The univariate tests show that on average, thefamily’s …rms earned about 1.25%, 2.17%, and 3.72% in 7-day, 11-day and 61-day CAR,
respectively, more than the …rms that are associated with non-network marriages.
5

For example, Faccio (2006) studies the value of political connections using the events when large
shareholders or o¢ cers enter politics and the appointment of politicians to the board. The results basedon 157 observations from 47 countries indicate that these …rms gain an average 5-day CARs of 1.43%.

16

The results are similar when we break down the networks into business and political
networks. Both types of networks bring a premium to their connected …rms. Political
network marriages generate 7-day 11-day, and 61-day abnormal returns that are 1.70%,
2.73%, and 5.38%, respectively, higher than non-network marriages. Similarly, …rms thatare associated with business network marriages earn an average premium as measured by
the 7-day 11-day, and 61-day CARs of 0.95%, 1.79%, and 2.60%, respectively. The value
created by the political network marriages appears to be somewhat larger than businessnetwork marriages, but the di¤erence is not statistically signi…cant. The median statistics
in Table 3 demonstrate results similar to the mean statistics, suggesting that these …ndings
are not driven by extreme values.

5.3

Is marriage related to succession?

Thus far we have mostly focused on the networking e¤ects of marriages. In this section wetest the alternative hypothesis that the marriages of business family members are a¤ectedby succession concerns.

5.3.1

Disciplining successors

If marriage can help discipline a male successor as argued in Section 3.2, we should observe
more positive CARs for the …rms owned by the families where the grooms are potential
successors than for other families whose grooms are non-successors. Successor choices inThailand are in‡uenced by Chinese-Thai inheritance customs and the current trend in
gender equality. Typically, the eldest son is the natural heir to the main business. So, we
focus on the …rst son of the current head (henceforth, …rst sons of the current head). The
head of a group is de…ned as the founder if the founder is still alive. Otherwise, the headis the CEO or chairman of the largest …rm in the group.
Panel A of Table 4 presents a set of univariate comparisons of the 11-day CARs among17

several sub-groups of …rms. The marriages of the sons are associated with positive CARs.
Speci…cally, the marriages of the …rst sons and other sons are associated with CARs of
1.58% and 1.80%, respectively. Such positive abnormal returns, however, are driven by
network marriages. Investors react positively (CARs of 1.76%) only when the …rst sonsare married to women from other business or political families. Similarly, the marriagesof other sons to a partner from business or political families are associated with CARs
of 2.38%. Non-network marriages, whether involving …rst sons or other sons, earn zeroabnormal returns. Overall, these results refute the successor-disciplining hypothesis whilelending support to the network hypothesis.

5.3.2

Recruiting successors

To examine whether marriages can be a means to bring in "new sons" as successors, welook at marriages of daughters of the current head (henceforth, daughters of the current
head) and other daughters. The CARs results from Panel B of Table 4 show that daughters
marrying men from other business or political families are associated with positive CARs.
Eighteen out of 19 daughters of the current head wed a person from an in‡uential family
and hence their marriages are considered network marriages. The stock prices of the …rms
belonging to her family went up, with an average 11-day CAR of 2.34%. In contrast, in
one case where the daughter’s partner was selected from a non-in‡uential family, the stock
price of the family’s …rm went down dramatically (-7.98%). Results based on marriages ofother daughters are similar.
These results are inconsistent with the view that marriage is used to bring in potential
successors. Rather, the results strongly suggest the network e¤ects: marriages of daughtersoften connect the families and their …rms to other powerful families.

18

5.3.3The same circle e¤ects"Old money" are established families who have inherited wealth over generations. In addition to wealth and the economic status, old money have inherited valuable "old family ties"
or "elite connections" that have been accumulated over multiple generations. In contrast,
nouveau riche refers to a newcomer who has acquired considerable wealth within the entrepreneur’s generation. As traditional claims to status are not found among the nouveauxriches, one would expect that the value from network marriage gained by the nouveau richefamily would be greater than for an old money family. In other words, such a marriage
may provide the means to acquire close ties or networks that were previously unavailable
or unobtainable. To account for this e¤ect, we de…ne a family as old money if the family
has been in business for at least two generations; otherwise a family is de…ned as nouveau
riche.
Interestingly, the results in Panel C of Table 4 show that both old money and nouveau
riche actively engaged in network marriages. Consistent with previous results, investors responded positively only when the partner was chosen from a powerful family. The premium
generated by network marriages is not signi…cantly di¤erent for these two groups. The results indicate that old money and nouveau riche alike consider marriage as an importantmeans to establish business networks.
[Insert Table 4 here]

5.4

Regression analysis

As robustness tests, we run OLS regressions using the 11-day (from 5 days before to 5days after the event date) CARs as the dependent variables. To compare the CARs of…rms connected to business and political networks with those of …rms that do not establish
such connections, we include two dummy variables indicating the marriage types in the19regressions: business network marriage and political network marriage. To capture the
combined e¤ect of these two types of network marriages, another dummy variable, network
marriage, is included. Three main variables related to succession hypothesis are included.
First sons of the current head is a dummy variable as the proxy of disciplining a successor.
Daughters of the current head is a dummy variable to capture the possibility of recruiting
a successor. Old money is used as a proxy of the same circle e¤ect. We also control for…rm characteristics including …rm size (log of total assets), leverage, and EBIT over total
assets, all measured at the end of the year in which the wedding was held.6
Table 5 presents the regression results. To account for potential correlation of stocke¤ects of marriages within the same family, standard errors are clustered at the familylevel. Consistent with the results of the univariate tests, the estimated coe¢ cients on thethree network variables are positive and strongly signi…cant in all regressions. Stocks of
the …rms associated with network marriages experience signi…cantly higher CARs than dothe stocks of the …rms associated with non-network marriages. The estimated coe¢ cientson the network dummies suggest that, measured by the 11-day CARs, political-networkcreating marriages are on average associated with a 3.30% stock return premium, andbusiness-network-creating marriages are typically associated with a 2.20% stock premium.
By contrast, the three variables used to capture succession e¤ects, First sons of thecurrent head, Daughters of the current head, and Old money, are statistically insigni…cant.
These results do not support the hypothesis that stock price reactions around the weddingsre‡ect the marriages’ bene…ts to family …rm succession. None of the remaining control
variables signi…cantly a¤ects CARs around the wedding events.
We alternatively use the shorter (-3 to +3) and the longer (-30 to +30) event window
CARs as the dependent variable and re-run the regressions. The results are similar andtherefore not separately reported. As an additional diagnostic check, we estimate CARs
6

The results remain unchanged when the lagged control variables are used.

20

using the market index return instead of the return estimated from the market model. This
is to account for potential bias in estimating market model coe¢ cients. Our overall results
remain qualitatively similar.
[Insert Table 5 here]

6

Sources of value gains

This section explores the stock abnormal returns further. We test whether the positive
abnormal returns observed in Section 5 indeed re‡ect future economic bene…ts that the…rms would derive from being connected to new networks. This is done by comparing thebusiness characteristics of the families engaging in network marriages with those of otherfamilies associated with non-network marriages. As discussed earlier, family networks may
facilitate exchanges of information and resources among networked …rms. The bene…ts ofsuch exchanges are greater for …rms whose operations are highly dependent on proprietary
information, political connections, and exclusive resources. In the following paragraphs we
discuss such bene…ts and formulate our empirical tests.

6.1

The information and political connection e¤ect

6.1.1

The information e¤ect

Due to the nature of the business, networking is an absolute necessity in some industries to
get a business o¤ the ground. For example, in the real estate sector, the product is unique,in terms of its location, the building, and the …nancing. Transactions with a high content ofspeci…c knowledge are subject to information asymmetries (Arrow 1971; Williamson 1986).
This problem makes pricing di¢ cult (Olsen 1971). In many emerging economies, weak
institutional arrangements may magnify information asymmetries which make the pricing

21

more volatile and the property market less liquid. Consequently, …rms need to spend moreresources searching for information prior to the exchange. Networks provide a means toaccess valuable information on supply, demand, industry trends, and market conditions.
Coordinating with other market players appears to play a prominent role in securing
a contract with the government which typically owns or regulates land-use rights. Close
relationships among market players facilitate such coordination. It is not uncommon in adeveloping economy for contractors to coordinate their bids in a series of projects so thateach of them in turn is the winning bidder. In order to ensure that maximum bene…t isderived from this coordination, the bids are structured so that the winning bid, although
the lowest among all the submitted bids for that project, is still signi…cantly higher than if
there had been no such coordination. This sort of coordination is typically quite opaque, as
experienced contractors know how to pitch their bids without arousing suspicion. Moreover,the contractors build strong relationships to avoid any disloyal behavior.

6.1.2

The political connection e¤ect

In businesses requiring the government’s approval and concession, close connections withhigh ranking o¢ cials are a necessity to achieve competitive advantages. In a highly regulated environment, government o¢ cials formulate development plans, control budgets, set
the rules for contractors to enter and operate in the business, examine credentials, authorize
contracts and pay the bills for services rendered. Hence corporate performance is highly
dependent on the ability to "mold" the rules to …t the …rm’s needs. Close relationships
with public o¢ cials also facilitate lucrative contracts. As shown by Bunkanwanicha and
Wiwattanakantang (2009), …rms in the satellite cable television and telecommunication industries were able to obtain concessions in Thailand via such connections. In addition, theincumbent telecoms …rms were protected from competition when the state implemented a
new regulation to block new entries to the market.

22

Abundant anecdotes indicate that big business leaders often manage to in‡uence government o¢ cials on the selection of a new road to be built, the route it follows, or a new
construction project. Bene…ts may also simply come from having access to proprietary
information on new construction projects. Then a developer would buy properties aroundthe area before property prices rise when the information is eventually made public.7

6.1.3

Empirical evidence

The above discussion leads us to consider two sets of industries subject to the informationand political e¤ects of networks. We focus on the families that own at least one …rm in (1)the property and construction industries or (2) concession industries including telecommunications, television, alcoholic drinks, and energy.
As reported in Panels A and B of Table 6, the marriages of family members in these industries are almost always network marriages. In the property and construction industries,
35 out of 37 cases are network marriages. In the concession industries, 14 out of 15 cases
are network marriages. This striking evidence of network marriage practice lends initialsupport to the notion that business and political networks are critical to these industries
and …rms.
For publicly-traded …rms in these industries, we calculate the 11-day CARs around thecontrolling families’ wedding events. If a family owns multiple publicly traded …rms indi¤erent industries, we include only those in the property and construction and concession industries. If a family own multiple publicly traded …rms in the these industries, we
calculate the average 11-day CARs of the …rms. In other words, our analysis is at thefamily level instead of the …rm level. Although we are unable to run regressions becauseof the small number of non-network marriages in these industries, we conduct univariate
7

There were allegations that in speculation of a new Bangkok airport to be constructed and opened in
2006, prominent developers with strong political connections had bought large plots of land surrounding
the airport (The Nation, June 26, 2006).

23

comparisons of the average CARs of families engaging network marriages with those of the
few remaining families associated with non-network marriages, separately for the two setsof industries where networking is important.
Consistent with our previous …ndings, network marriages in the property and construction and concession industries are good news for those who invest in the family …rms. In
particular, network marriages are associated with average 11-day CARs of 2.78%, 2.22%
for …rms in the property/construction industries and concessions, respectively. In contrast,
for non-network marriages, none of the …rms in these two groups is associated with positive
abnormal returns. The premium generated by network marriage is 3.01% for the …rms in
the real estate and construction industries, and 2.26% for the …rms in concession industries.
These results indicate that it is the network e¤ect rather than the industry e¤ect per sethat drives the positive abnormal stock returns.
[Insert Table 6 here]

6.2

The business synergy e¤ect

Marriage may create bene…cial e¤ects for the connecting family …rms just as mergers createsynergies for merging …rms. We investigate horizontal and vertical integration as potential
sources of value gains from network marriages. The literature provides abundant theories
and evidence on the bene…ts of both types of business combination. These bene…ts include
cost reduction through scale economy and/or complementarity, monopolizing resources andmarkets, mitigating market transaction costs, and so on (Coase 1937; Williamson 1978;
Klein, Crawford, and Alchian 1979; Grossman and Hart 1988).
In the context of marriage, opportunities for horizontal integration may occur when thefamilies of the bride and the groom each own at least one …rm that operates in the same
industry. For example, a son of a textile manufacturer is married to a daughter of another24

textile manufacturer. Opportunities for vertical integration may occur when the couple’sfamily …rms are potential supplier and/or customer of each other. For example, the bride’s
family owns an automobile company and the groom’s family owns a tire company.
There are 13 pairings in which the businesses of the two families are related. To identify
business relatedness of the two families, we classify each of the families’businesses using 2digit SIC codes, and compare the sets of 2-digit SIC codes of the bride’s family’s businesses
with those of the groom’s family’s businesses. A marriage creates an opportunity forhorizontal integration if the two families have at least one common business de…ned atthe 2-digit SIC code level. A marriage creates an opportunity for vertical integration
if one family has at least one …rm that is upstream or downstream from another …rm
owned by the other family. For a given business associated with a 2-digit SIC code, its
upstream/downstream businesses are de…ned as its top-3 supplying/consuming industries
as in the input-output table (Fan and Lang 2000).
Table 7 reports the information of the 13 marriages where the businesses of the two
families are related, including the name, the 2-digit SIC codes of the …rms owned by thebride and the groom’s families, the business integration created by the marriages. The
details of each business integration are reported in Appendix 2. Most of the marriages areassociated with signi…cant positive stock price reactions, measured by the 11-day CARs
around the wedding events. The average CAR is 3.56% for the network marriages associatedwith horizontal integration and 3.78% for those associated with vertical integration. These
numbers are signi…cantly di¤erent from zero and signi…cantly larger than the average CAR(-0.13%) of the non-network marriages in our sample. Note that there are two cases ofhorizontal integration and four cases of vertical integration where the families on bothsides owned listed …rms.
The above results are not driven by speci…c industries such as property and construction,and concession industries. The signi…cant positive abnormal stock returns remain even if

25

these network intensive industries are excluded.
[Insert Table 7 here]

7

Conclusion

We have used evidence from Thailand, a typical developing country, to demonstrate theprevalence of business and political networks created by marriage. Among the 140 newlyweds of o¤spring from the top 150 business families during 1991-2006, in almost 80% of thecases the partner is from either a business or a politician family. Network marriages are
particularly popular among families whose businesses are dependent on state concessions or
which are in the property and construction industries. Strikingly, the stock prices of theirfamily …rms react positively to the marriage news. Positive abnormal returns are driven
by marriages that create business or political networks for the family businesses. Thisevidence strongly supports the hypothesis that family …rms can bene…t from the marriageof the owners’o¤spring. Via marriage, the controlling family can be connected closely toother in‡uential families including business leaders, politicians and bureaucrats. By contrast, our evidence lends little support to the argument that marriages are motivated bysuccession concerns.
In fact, the role of marriage in forming networks for the interests of the family’s …rms
has long been discussed in the literature, but empirical tests have been lacking. A primarybarrier is data di¢ culties and endogeneity problems. In particular, data on the family treeof the company owners is often not available. In this study, we are able to …ll this gap byassembling the rare dataset from Thailand. The event study on these weddings mitigatestypical endogeneity problems in cross-sectional studies. Speci…cally, the weddings and inparticular the wedding dates are primarily determined by custom and tradition which isexogenous to company policies. Therefore the stock price e¤ects of the wedding events are26

likely to be the e¤ects of the marriages rather than other business factors. Moreover, wehave used various sub-sample tests to identify the channel through which marriages arebene…cial to family …rms.
A natural extension of our work would be to explore the long-term consequences ofmarriage to well-connected families. Another key feature of family …rms is the intensive
exchanges and collaboration within a relationship network. One could draw important
policy implications if one could identify the market share of an industry or an economy
controlled by a single marriage network. Indeed, we are just beginning to learn how a
network is formed, the role of family in network formation and how the network creates orpreserves value. We leave these to future research.

27

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31

Figure 1: Marriage networks of big business families in Thailand

Jarusatien

Thepkanjana
Phaoenchoke

Cholvijarn

Angubolkul
NavaphanKarnchanachari

Wattanavekin
Nitibhon

Bisalputra

Phongsathorn

Sethpornpong
BulsookThavisin
Rattanin

Chutrakul

Poolvoralaks
Osathanont

Hetrakul

WangleeSibunruang

Sethpakdi

Osathanugrah
Chakkaphak

Sethteewan

LamsamChaichanianVirameteekul
Phenjati

Leeissaranukul/Phannachet
Yip In Tsoi/ Lailert
Uahchukiat

Tejapaibul

Thienprasidda

SarasasLeenutaphong

Noonbhakdi

Chatikavanij
Royal familiesRoyalfamilyBodiratnangkura
Uahwatanasakul

Kitikachorn
Tantranont

Krairiksh
Sukosol

Chearavanont

Tangkaravakoon
Sarasin
Karnasuta

Bhirombhakdi

PromphanChirathivat

Piya-ouiNandhapiwat

MahaphanLim-atibul

Techakraisri

Na Songkla

Srivikorn

Business family

Attakravisunthorn
Jirakiti

Maleenont

Political family

Harnpanich

Mahagitsiri
Sosothikul

Benjarongkul

Charoen-Rajjapak
Vuthinantha

Asavabhokin

32

Other family

Figure 2: Cumulative abnormal returns around the wedding news

CAR
5.00%
Network marriages

3.00%

1.00%

-30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0
-1.00%

24

6

8

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Non network marriages-3.00%-5.00%

33

Table 1
The wedding events
This table reports the distribution of the wedding events.

Year

Number of wedding events

Percentage

1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006

5
7
4
9
8
12
3
10
9
7
12
7
7
6
18
7

3.8%
5.3%
3.1%
6.9%
6.1%
9.2%
2.3%
7.6%
6.9%
5.3%
9.2%
5 3%
5.3%
5.3%
4.6%
13.7%
5.3%

Total

131

100.0%

34

Table 2
The family background of the wedding partner
This table reports the family background of the wedding partner.

Number ofobservations
A. Family background
1 Royal, noble
2 Politician, military, high-ranking bureaucrat
3 Business with listed firms (9 couples)
4 Other business
5 Foreigner
6 Others
Total
B. Type of family background
Political (1+2)
Business (3+4)
Other (5+6)
Total
C. Network vs. Non network
Network (1+2+3+4)
Non network (5+6)
Total

35

Percentage

9
35
18
48
9
21

6.4%
25.0%
12 9%
12.9%
34.3%
6.4%
15.0%

140

100.0%

44
66
30
140

31.4%
31
4%
47.1%
21.4%
100.0%

110
30
140

78.6%
21.4%
21
4%
100.0%

Table 3
The value of network marriage
This table reports the statistics of the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the wedding news of the bride/groom who is from the big business families controlling publicly traded
companies in Thailand. The event date is defined as the first trading day after the news is published in the Thairath newspaper. Network marriages are the weddings in which the partner
is from a family connected to business or political networks. Political network marriages are the weddings in which the partners are from political families. Business network marriages
are the weddings in which the partners are from business families. Non-network marriages are the weddings in which the partners are not from the business or political families. *, **,andat thed *** ddenote statisticali i l significancei ifi
h 10%, 5%, andd 1% levels,l l respectively.
i l

CAR (-3,+3)

CAR (-5,+5)

CAR (-30,+30)

A. Full sample
Network

Non network Difference
Non-network

Network

Non network Difference
Non-network

Network

Non network Difference
Non-network

Mean
p-value (clustered by family)

1.40%***(0.00)

0.15%(0.83)

1.25%**(0.04)

2.04%***(0.00)-0.13%(0.84)

2.17%**(0.02)

3.77%***(0.00)

0.05%(0.98)

3.72%**(0.04)Medianp-value of the sign-test
Number of observations

0.67%***(0.00)
110-0.11%(0.58)
30

0.78%*(0.09)
140

1.01%**(0.04)
110-0.05%(0.58)
30

1.06%**(0.04)
140

2.79%***(0.00)
110-0.89%(0.58)
30

3.68%**(0.02)
140

Non-network Difference

Political

Non-network Difference

Political

B. By type of network
Political

Non-network DifferenceMeanp-value (clustered by family)

1.85%**(0.01)

0.15%(0.83)

1.70%**(0.05)

2.60%**(0.02)-0.13%(0.84)

2.73%**(0.04)

5.43%***(0.00)

0.05%(0.98)

5.38%**(0.03)Medianp-value (sign test)
Number of observations

0.89%***(0.00)
44-0.11%(0.58)
30

1.00%*(0.09)
74

1.27%**(0.04)
44-0.05%(0.58)
30

1.32%**(0.04)
74

5.43%***(0.00)
44-0.89%(0.58)
30

6.32%***(0.00)
74

Non-network Difference

Business

Non-network Difference

Business

Business

Non-network DifferenceMeanp-valuel ((clusteredld bby ffamily)il )

1.10%**(0 04)(0.04)

0.15%
(0
83)
(0.83)

0.95%*(0(0.09)
09)

1.66%**(001)(0.01)-0.13%(084)(0.84)

1.79%**(0(0.04)
04)

2.66%**(005)(0.05)

0.05%
(0
98)
(0.98)

2.60%*(0(0.08)
08)

Medianp-value (sign test)

0.50%*(0.10)-0.11%(0.58)

0.61%*(0.10)

0.87%*(0.09)-0.05%(0.58)

0.92%*(0.09)

1.97%**(0.03)-0.89%(0.58)

2.86%*(0.07)

66

30

96

66

30

96

66

30

96

Number of observations
Difference of mean (Political vs. Business)
p-value (clustered by family)

0.75%(0.38)

0.94%(0.44)

2.78%(0.13)

Difference of median (Political vs. Business)
p-value (Wilcoxon test)

0.30%(0.26)

0.40%(0.54)

3.46%(0.11)

36

Table 4
Is marriage related to succession?
This table reports the statistics of the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the wedding news of the bride/groom who isfrom the big business families controlling publicly traded companies in Thailand. The event date is defined as the first trading day
after the news is published in the Thairath newspaper. Network marriages are the weddings in which the partner is from a family
connected to business or political networks. Political network marriages are the weddings in which the partners are from politicalfamilies. Business network marriages are the weddings in which the partners are from business families. Non-network marriages
are theare nott fromtheor politicalgroup
th weddings
ddi
iin whichhi h theth partnerstf
th businessb iliti l families.
f ili Old money iis ddefined
fi d as theth businessb i
has been in business for at least two generations. Nouveau riche is not an old money family. *, **, and *** denote statisticalsignificance at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively.
Number ofobservations

CAR(-5,+5)First
Fi t sons off theth currentt headh dNetwork marriage
Non-network marriage
Other sons
Network marriage
Non-network marriage

26
23
3
55
39
16

11.58%*
58%*
1.76%*
0.14%
1.80%*
2.38%*
0.37%

Difference (First sons of the current head vs. Other sons)p-value (clustered by family)

81-0.22%(0.88)

Daughters of the current head
Network marriage
Non-network marriage
Other daughters
Network marriage
Non-network marriage

19
18
1
40
30
10

1.79%*
2.34%***-7.98%
1.16%
1.63%*-0.22%

Difference (Daughters of the current head vs. Other daughters)
p-value (clustered by family)

59

0.63%
(0.60)

74
63
11
66
47
19

1.26%**
1.50%**-0.14%
1.92%**
2 75%***
2.75%***-0.12%

140-0.66%(-0.73)

A. Disciplining successors

B. Recruiting successors

C. The same circle effect
Old money
Network marriage
Non-network marriage
Nouveau riche
Network marriage
Non-network marriage
Difference (Old money vs. Nouveau riche)
p-value (clustered by family)

37

Table 5
The value of marriage: regression analysis
This table reports coefficient estimates of OLS regressions. The dependent variable is the cumulative market-adjusted
abnormal returns (CARs) around the wedding news of the bride/groom who is from the big business families controlling
publicly traded companies in Thailand. The event date is defined as the first trading day after the news is published in theThairath newspaper. Network marriage is a dummy variable that takes a value of one if the partner is from a family
connected to business or political networks, and zero otherwise. Political network marriage is a dummy variable that takes avalue of one if the partner is from (i) a royal or noble family or (ii) the family of politician, high-ranking military officer orcivil servant, and zero otherwise. Business network marriage is a dummy variable that take a value of one if the partner isfrom the business families, and zero otherwise. First sons of the current head is a dummy variable that takes a value of one if
the groom is the eldest son of the current CEO or chairman of the largest firm in the group. Daughters of the current head is adummy variable that takes a value of one if the bride is the daughter of the current CEO or chairman of the largest firm in thegroup. Old money is a dummy variable that takes a value of one if the family has been in business for at least two generations,and zero otherwise. Log (total assets) is the logarithm of total assets. Leverage is the ratio of total debt to total assets.
EBIT/total assets is the ratio of earnings before interest and taxes to total assets. Numbers in parentheses are t-statistics fromheteroskedasticity-robust standard errors with clustering at the family level. *, **, and *** denote statistical significance atthe 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively.

Network marriage

CAR(-5,+5)

CAR(-5,+5)

CAR(-5,+5)

CAR(-5,+5)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

0.023**(2.30)()

0.027**(2.26)()
0.029**(1.98)
0.018**(2.04)

Political network marriage-0.003(-0.39)-0.033(-1.00)()-0.044(-0.41)
0.025(0.53)-0.006(-0.41)-0.003(-0.24)-0.015(-1.24)-0.001(-0.08)-0.036(-1.08)()-0.050(-0.46)0.022(0.45)-0.002(-0.34)-0.035(-1.04)()-0.043(-0.41)0.023(0.51)

0.033**(2.04)
0.022**(2.09)-0.005(-0.35)-0.002(-0.15)-0.015(-1.23)-0.000(-0.01)-0.038(-1.12)()-0.050(-0.46)0.020(0.43)

140
0.040

140
0.052

140
0.046

140
0.059

Business network marriage
First sons of the current head
Daughtersof the current headg
Old money
Log (total assets)
Leverage
EBIT/total assets
Constant

Number of observations
Adjusted R2

38

Table 6
The information and political connection effects
This table reports the statistics of the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the wedding news of the bride/groom
who is from the big business families controlling publicly traded companies in Thailand. The event date is defined as thefirst trading day after the news is published in the Thairath newspaper. Network marriages are the weddings in which thepartner is from a family connected to business or political networks. Non-network marriages are the weddings in which
the partners are not from the business or political families. *, **, and *** denote statistical significance at the 10%, 5%,
d 1% llevels,l respectively.
i l
and

A. The information effect: Property and construction industries
Network marriage
Non network marriage
Difference (Network vs. Non network)
p-value (clustered by family)
B. The political connection effect: Businesses operating under state concessions
Network marriage
Non network marriage
Difference (Network vs. Non network)
p-valuel (clustered( l t d byb family)f il )

39

Number ofobservations

CAR(-5,+5)3522.78%**-0 23%-0.23%

37

3.01%*(0.07)

141

2.22%**-0.04%

15

2.26%**(0 04)(0.04)

Table 7
The business synergy effectThis table reports the business relatedness of the bride and groom families. SIC codes represent the 2-digit SIC codes of the firms controlled by the family. Horizontal integration is
the marriage where the two families have at least one common business at the 2-digit SIC code level. Vertical integration is the marriage where one family have at least one firm thatis the upstream or downstream of another firm owned by another family. The upstream and downstream industries are defined as its top 3 supplying/consuming industries in Fan andLang(2000).
**, andat theL(2000) **, **d *** ddenote statisticali i l significancei ifi
h 10%,
10% 5%,
5% andd 1% levels,l l respectively.
i lEvent year

1991
1991
1992
1992
1994
1995
1996
1996
1999
2001
2002
2003
2006

Bride's family

Groom's family

Family name

SIC codes

Family name

SIC codes

Wattanavekin
Tejavibul
Sophonpanich
LamsamChearavanont
Poolvaraluck
Chirathivat
Krairiksh
Srivikorn
Vutinantha
Bhirombhakdi
Srifuengfung
Krairiksh

42, 6026
28, 33, 35, 60, 62, 63, 80
20, 28, 48, 60, 63, 73, 80
02, 20, 28, 36, 54, 51
65, 7820, 27, 53, 65, 70
60
22, 32, 60, 65
32
20, 3422, 28, 30, 60
60

Angubolkul
Asvinvichit
Leeswadtrakul
Leeissaranukul
Virameteekul
LamsamTechakraisri
LamsamTeepsuwan
AssakulTeepsuwan
Hetrakul
Bhirombhakdi

30
26
34, 5035, 36, 37
28, 6520, 28, 48, 60, 63, 73, 80
37, 6520, 28, 48, 60, 63, 73, 80
32
32
32
28, 6520 34
20,SIC matching pairs

Business integration
Horizontal

42-30
26-26
28-50, 33-34, 35-34, 60-34, 62-34, 80-50
48-35, 48-37, 73-35, 80-35
28-28
65-60, 65-63, 78-48, 78-73
65-65, 53-37
60-60, 60-73
32-32, 65-32
32-32
34-32
22-28, 28-28, 30-28, 60-65
60 34
60-34

Vertical
Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

CAR(-5,+5) CAR(-5,+5)
Network marriage
p-value (clustered by family)
No. of observations
No. of wedding events

40

3.56%*(0.09)

3.78%**(0.01)

97

14
10

Appendix 1
The network marriages around the world
Country

Network marriage

South Korea

The Chey of SK group, the third largest chaebol, is connected by marriage to former President Roh Tae
Woo.

Singapore

The Didwania, a singapore-based owner of a worldwide steel supply chain, is connected to a Calcattabased tycoon, the Gabodia

India

The hier of the Chaudhary group, whose worldwide industrial empire has its headquarters in Nepal, ismarriaged to a daughter of the Mittal group which dominates the world's steel industry.

RussiaOleg Deripaska, one of the wealthiest tycoons, who owns the world's biggest producer of aluminium, ismarried to a granddaughter of the late former Soviet president Boris Yeltsin.

Ukraine

The country's second wealthiest tycoon, Viktor Pinchuk is connected to former president Leonid Kuchma
by the marriage of his daughter.

MexicoThe heiress of one of the biggest business group owners, Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, is married to
Tony Garza, US Ambassador to Mexico.

Japan

The Toyodas (Toyota Motors) are connected via marriage networks to the two former prime ministers(Nakasone and Hatoyama) and seven top business families, namely Mitsui (the biggest pre-war zaibatsu),
Shimizu (a worldwide general construction group), Kajima (a worldwide general construction group),
Ishibashi (Bridgestone), Uehara (Taisho Pharmaceutical), Saito (Daishowa Paper Manufacturing), andIida (Takashimaya department store).

CanadaPaul Desmarais, the 6th richest person in Canada who owns Power Corporation and extensive companies,
is connected to former PM Jean Chretien by the marriage of Andre Desmarais and France Chretien.

Italy

One of the richest shipping tycoons of the 20th century, Aristotelis Onassis was married to Athina
Livanos, who was a daughter of another shipping magnate Stavros Livanos.

Spain

A billionaire Esther Koplowitz is married to Fernando Falco, Marques de Cubas, scion of a prominent
Sapnish family.

Austria

Crystal-heiress Fiona Swarovski wedded Austria's finance minister.

FranceJessica Sebaoun-Darty, an hieress of a French electronics-vending empire was married to Jean Sarkozy, a
son of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Greek/Ireland

Chryss Goulandris, a Greek shipping heiress, is married to Tony O'Reilly who is one of Ireland's richest
men.

France/Italy

Delphine Arnault, the daughter of Bernard Arnault who is France's richest person and owns the LVMH
(Louis Vitton Moet Hennessy) luxury goods conglomerate, is married to Alessandro Vallarino Gancia,
hier to an Italian wine dynasty.

41

Appendix 2
The business synergy effect: industry description
Event Bride's family
year

Groom's family Type ofbusiness
integration

SIC
matching
pairs

SIC of the bride's family business

1991
1991
1992

Wattanavekin
Tejavibul
Sophonpanich

Angubolkul
Asvinvichit
Leeswadtrakul

1992

LamsamLeeissaranukul

1994
1995

Chearavanont
Poolvaraluck

Virameteekul
Lamsam1996

Chirathivat

Techakraisri

1996

Krairiksh

Lamsam1999

Srivikorn

Teepsuwan

2001
2002
2003

Vutinantha
Bhirombhakdi
Srifuengfung

AssakulTeepsuwan
Hetrakul

2006

Krairiksh

Bhirombhakdi

42-30
26-26
28-50
33-34
35-34
60-34
62-34
80-50
48-35
48-37
73-35
80-35
28-28
65-60
65-63
78-48
78-73
65-65
53-37
60-60
60-73
32-32
65-32
32-32
34-32
28-28
22-28
30-28
60-65
60-34

42: Motor Freight Transportation And Warehousing
30: Rubber And Miscellaneous Plastics Products
26: Paper And Allied Products
26: Paper And Allied Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
50: Wholesale Trade-durable Goods
33: Primary Metal Industries
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment
35: Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment
60: Depository Institutions
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment
62: Security And Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges, And Services
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment
80: Health Services
50: Wholesale Trade-durable Goods
48: Communications
35: Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment
48: Communications
37: Transportation Equipment
73: Business Services
35: Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment
80: Health Services
35: Industrial And Commercial Machinery And Computer Equipment
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
65: Real Estate
60: Depository Institutions
65: Real Estate
63: Insurance Carriers
78: Motion Pictures
48: Communications
78: Motion Pictures
73: Business Services
65: Real Estate
65: Real Estate
53: General Merchandise Stores
37: Transportation Equipment
60: Depository Institutions
60: Depository Institutions
60: Depository Institutions
73: Business Services
32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
65: Real Estate
32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment 32: Stone, Clay, Glass, And Concrete Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
22: Textile Mill Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
30: Rubber And Miscellaneous Plastics Products
28: Chemicals And Allied Products
60: Depository Institutions
65: Real Estate
60: Depository Institutions
34: Fabricated Metal Products, Except Machinery And Transportation Equipment

VerticalHorizontal
VerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalHorizontal
VerticalVerticalVerticalVerticalHorizontal
VerticalHorizontal
VerticalHorizontal
VerticalHorizontal
VerticalHorizontal
VerticalVerticalVerticalVertical

SIC of the groom's family business42