23.02.2026 Paper Accepted for Publication | Journal of Corporate Finance - "Economic policy uncertainty and the founding family firm premium"

Journal Accepted for Publication | Journal of Corporate Finance

Economic policy uncertainty and the founding family firm premium

Economic Policy Uncertainty has become a defining feature of today’s economic environment. Geopolitical tensions, fragmented politics, rapid regulatory change, and large-scale transformation agendas mean that firms and investors increasingly operate under unclear and shifting rules of the game. In their recently published paper (in the Journal of Corporate Finance), authors Dr. Markus Fütterer, Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp, and Dr. Ignacio Requejo study how firm value responds to increases in economic policy uncertainty using European data. They show:

• 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 declines when economic policy uncertainty rises, but
• the 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐮𝐦, the valuation difference between founding family firms and other firms, reacts positively to increasing economic policy uncertainty.

These findings are relevant not only for investors, but also for a broader audience. They support the view that founding family firms are more resilient in uncertain policy environments and may contribute to economic stability when uncertainty is high.

The In Press, Journal Pre-proof version of the paper is available here. Congratulations to the authors for the successful publication!