IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbr/cbrwps/wp465.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate Governance, Legal Origin & the Persistence of Profits

Author

Listed:
  • Dominic Chai
  • Simon Deakin
  • Prabirjit Sarkar
  • Ajit Singh

Abstract

The persistence of abnormal profits can be interpreted as evidence of the presence of firms which are successful over time in capturing rents from product or process innovation. Using a large sample of manufacturing firms in 18 developed and developing countries, we estimate the impact of laws governing shareholder rights on the persistence of firm-level profits. We find that higher shareholder protection reduces the persistence of profits in common law countries and increases it in civil law countries. Because shareholder protection is higher, on average, in common law countries, this finding is consistent with the view that increases in legally mandated or encouraged shareholder protection beyond a certain point have a negative impact on firm-level innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominic Chai & Simon Deakin & Prabirjit Sarkar & Ajit Singh, 2014. "Corporate Governance, Legal Origin & the Persistence of Profits," Working Papers wp465, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp465
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/cbrwp465/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    2. William Lazonick, 2007. "The US stock market and the governance of innovative enterprise ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(6), pages 983-1035, December.
    3. John Cable & Dennis Mueller, 2008. "Testing for Persistence of Profits' Differences Across Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 201-228.
    4. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 110-110.
    5. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 351-351.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. Aoki, Masahiko, 2010. "Corporations in Evolving Diversity: Cognition, Governance, and Institutions," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199218530, Decembrie.
    8. Anzhela Knyazeva & Diana Knyazeva, 2012. "Product Market Competition and Shareholder Rights: International Evidence," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(4), pages 663-694, September.
    9. Mueller, Dennis C, 1977. "The Persistence of Profits above the Norm," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 44(176), pages 369-380, November.
    10. Filippo Belloc, 2013. "Law, finance and innovation: the dark side of shareholder protection," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 863-888.
    11. Jack Glen & Kevin Lee & Ajit Singh, 2003. "Corporate profitability and the dynamics of competition in emerging markets: a time series analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(491), pages 465-484, November.
    12. William Lazonick & Andrea Prencipe, 2005. "Dynamic capabilities and sustained innovation: strategic control and financial commitment at Rolls-Royce plc," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 14(3), pages 501-542, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Deakin, 2013. "The Legal Framework Governing Business Firms & its Implications for Manufacturing Scale & Performance: The UK Experience in International Perspective," Working Papers wp449, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    2. Ajit Singh, 2003. "Competition, corporate governance and selection in emerging markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(491), pages 443-464, November.
    3. Malen, Joel & Vaaler, Paul M., 2017. "Organizational slack, national institutions and innovation effort around the world," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 782-797.
    4. Deakin, Simon & Sarkar, Prabirjit & Siems, Mathias, 2018. "Is There a Relationship Between Shareholder Protection and Stock Market Development?," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 115-146, May.
    5. Alan Hughes, 2014. "Short-Termism, Impatient Capital and Finance for Manufacturing Innovation in the UK," Working Papers wp457, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    6. Riccardo Ferretti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Alex Castelli, 2019. "Security-voting structure and equity financing in the banking sector: ‘one head-one vote’ versus ‘one share-one vote’," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(4), pages 1063-1097, December.
    7. Wenming Xu & Guangdong Xu, 2016. "Truth and Robustness in Cross-country Law and Finance Regressions: A Bayesian analysis of the Empirical “Law Matters†Thesis," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 6(6), pages 1-6.
    8. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Institutions as cognitive media between strategic interactions and individual beliefs," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 17, pages 298-312, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Singh, Ajit & Singh, Alaka & Weisse, Bruce, 2002. "Corporate Governance, Competetion, The new International Financial Architecture and Large Corporations in Emerging Markets," MPRA Paper 24305, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Frisell, Lars & Roszbach, Kasper & spagnolo, giancarlo, 2008. "Governing the Governors: A Clinical Study of Central Banks," Working Paper Series 221, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    11. Howard Bodenhorn, 2012. "Voting Rights, Share Concentration, and Leverage at Nineteenth-Century US Banks," NBER Working Papers 17808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Johan E. Eklund, 2009. "Corporate Governance and Investments in Scandinavia – Ownership Concentration and Dual-Class Equity Structure," Chapters, in: Per-Olof Bjuggren & Dennis C. Mueller (ed.), The Modern Firm, Corporate Governance and Investment, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Martin Hellwig, 2005. "Market Discipline, Information Processing, and Corporate Governance," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2005_19, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    14. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    15. Otten, J.A. & Heugens, P.P.M.A.R., 2007. "Extending the Managerial Power Theory of Executive Pay: A Cross National Test," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-090-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    16. Xie, En & Reddy, K.S. & Liang, Jie, 2017. "Country-specific determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions: A comprehensive review and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 127-183.
    17. Portolano, Alessandro, 2000. "The decision to adopt defensive tactics in Italy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 425-452, December.
    18. Octavian-Dragomir JORA & Mihaela IACOB, 2013. "A Reassessment of the Owner - Manager Class Conflict: the Unintended Private Consequence of Some Public Regulations," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 14(2), pages 323-337, May.
    19. David B. Audretsch & Erik E. Lehmann, 2013. "Corporate governance in newly listed companies," Chapters, in: Mario Levis & Silvio Vismara (ed.), Handbook of Research on IPOs, chapter 9, pages 179-206, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Denis Cormier & Luania Gomez Gutierrez & Michel Magnan, 2020. "Market enforcement under different legal regimes: a comparison of France and Canada," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 37-61, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Legal origin; corporate governance; shareholder protection; product market competition; persistence of profits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp465. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.