Unblocking Corporate Governance Reform
When they met earlier this month, G-20 finance ministers and central bankers called for global improvements in corporate governance. Such appeals are often heard, but powerful vested interests - sometimes where least expected - make it hard for governments to follow through in the absence of strong and persistent public pressure.
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CAMBRIDGE – When they met earlier this month, G-20 finance ministers and central bankers called for global improvements in corporate governance. Such appeals are often heard, but powerful vested interests make it hard for governments to follow through. So, if serious reforms are to be implemented, strong and persistent public pressure will be needed.
Many countries provide investors in publicly traded firms with levels of protection that are patently inadequate. Even in countries with well-developed systems of corporate governance, arrangements that are excessively lax on corporate insiders persist. In the United States, for example, insiders enjoy protections from takeovers that, according to a substantial body of empirical evidence, actually decrease company value.
Lax corporate governance rules are not generally the result of a lack of knowledge by public officials. Political impediments often enable lax arrangements to linger even after they are recognized as inefficient.
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