Sepúlveda, Jean P.Jara-Bertin, Mauricio2014-11-272014-11-272014-11-27http://hdl.handle.net/11447/16This study introduces an earnings management dimension to compute premanipulated accounting performance to determine whether family-controlled firms have higher performance relative to non-family-controlled firms. Using a premanipulated return on assets measure for Chilean firms dataset, we find that the premanipulated performance of family controlled firms is superior to that of non-family-controlled firms. We also show that the presence of institutional investors in the firm’s ownership structure has a positive influence on performance of family companies. The results suggest that earnings management behavior is not sufficient to explain the higher performance of family-controlled firms that has been reported in the literatureenFamily-controlled firmsEarnings managementAccounting performanceWorking Paper