Disappearing Paradigms in Shareholder Protection: Leximetric Evidence for 30 Countries, 1990-2013

Dionysia Katelouzou and Mathias Siems

Working Papers from Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge

Abstract: Scholars frequently claim that path dependency of the law, the influence of the US model of corporate governance, and the role of legal origin and the stage of legal development are key for a comparative understanding of shareholder protection. This article, however, suggests that these paradigms of comparative company law gradually seem to disappear. The basis for our assessment is an original leximetric dataset that measures the development of shareholder protection for 30 countries over the last 24 years. Using tools of descriptive statistics, time series and cluster analysis, our main findings are that all legal origins have now in average about the same level of shareholder protection, that paternalistic tools have overtaken enabling tools of protection, and that after the global financial crisis this area has become a less frequent object of law reforms.

Keywords: Shareholder protection; corporate governance; company law; legal origin; leximetrics; legal transplants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 F68 G38 K22 N20 N40 P50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-03
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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