Board of directors independence has been a focus for a large series of studies in finance. The overall evidence suggests that independence has no or negative effect on firm performance. Director accountability constitutes a second topic of research, in law and economics. Two distinctive models might be identified. The first one gives primacy to the interests of shareholders, whereas the other advocates enlarged fiduciary duties for directors. We argue that these two issues (independence and accountability) are related. In particular, we show that independence is a strong implication only for the shareholder model of accountability. In turn, the way the poor results of independency are accounted for crucially depends on the way director accountability is analyzed.
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Paper provided by University of Paris West - Nanterre la Défense, EconomiX in its series EconomiX Working Papers with number
2008-37.
Find related papers by JEL classification: G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Corporation and Securities Law