Differences in Governance Practices between US and Foreign Firms: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Aggarwal, Reena; Erel, Isil; Stulz, Rene; Williamson, Rohan
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; Georgetown University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhn107
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 3131
• 关键词: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE; LAW

摘要

We construct a firm-level governance index that increases with minority shareholder protection. Compared with U.S. matching firms, only 12.68% of foreign firms have a higher index. The value of foreign firms falls as their index decreases relative to the index of matching U.S. firms. Our results suggest that lower country-level investor protection and other country characteristics make it suboptimal for foreign firms to invest as much in governance as U.S. firms do. Overall, we find that minority shareholders benefit from governance improvements and do so partly at the expense of controlling shareholders.