With the development of knowledge economy represented by information and internet,more and more companies use dual-class equity structure to give founding shareholders the rights to control the board,and then to control the company's big operational and financial decisions to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation．Firstly,this paper reviews the literature of motives for using dual-class equity structure,such as protecting entrepreneurs and founding shareholders' control rights and interests,preventing hostile takeovers,avoiding the infringement of interests by professional managers and industry needs．Secondly,it analyzes the mechanism of ownership and control arrangements of dual-class equity structure from the perspectives of entrepreneurship,rule of law,and a tradeoff between benefits and costs．Thirdly,it reviews the economic consequences of dual-class equity structure,including its effects on stock prices,rates of returns,financial performance,earnings quality and the quality of information disclosure．Overall,the findings are mixed．This paper argues the needs to strengthen the study of economics theoretical basis,applicable conditions and economic consequences of dual-class equity structure and investor protection mechanism．