Corporate governance reform is in the air. This article warns against partial and hastily conceived interventions in complex and fragile governance arrangements. Reformers should step back and analyse the fundamental links between corporate law and corporate finance, and between corporate governance and the rest of the economic and legal system. Reform efforts should not meddle with specific ownership and control structures. Specific problems like the poor liquidity of particular stock markets and poor protection of minority shareholders in some countries should be addressed directly. Fundamental reform of corporate governance is probably desirable in certain countries, but will require far-reaching and country-specific changes in the economic system. Reform is thus best handled at the level of individual member states. Initiatives to harmonize the structure and control of corporations at the European Union level are bound to fail, and the prospects for specific proposals like the European company statute are bleak at best. A European Commission 'Corporate Governance Policy' should focus on promoting transparency and the dissemination of information. Copyright Centre for Economic Policy Research, Centre for Economic Studies, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme 1997.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Article provided by CEPR, CES, MSH in its journal Economic Policy.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F. Baum).
Related research
Keywords:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer, 1998.
"Corporate Ownership Around the World,"
NBER Working Papers
6625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999.
"Corporate Ownership Around the World,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, 04.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Did you know? You can include your works in the database easily by uploading them on the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA) if you do not have access to an institutional RePEc archive.