Investor Protection: Origins, Consequences, Reform
Rafael La Porta,
Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes (),
Andrei Shleifer and
Robert Vishny
Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research
Abstract:
Recent research has documented large differences between countries in ownership concentration in publicly traded firms, in the breadth and depth of capital markets, in dividend policies, and in the access of firms to external finance. We suggest that there is a common element to the explanations of these differences, namely how well investors, both shareholders and creditors, are protected by law from expropriation by the managers and controlling shareholders of firms. We describe the differences in laws and the effectiveness of their enforcement across countries, discuss the possible origins of these differences, summarize their consequences, and assess potential strategies off corporate governance reform. We argue that the legal approach is a more fruitful way to understand corporate governance and its reform than the conventional distinction between bank-centered and market-centered financial systems.
Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)
Downloads: (external link)
ftp://ftp.repec.org/RePEc/fth/harver/hier1883.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:harver:1883
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().