Based on data from an original survey of senior HR executives in Japan and the United States, this paper provides empirical data for evaluating institutional convergence. In both countries, the headquarters HR function has shrunk and that employment decisions have become more decentralized....

Is there one best way to run the modern business corporation? What is the appropriate balance between shareholders, executives, and employees? These questions are being vigorously debated as layoffs, scandals, and restructurings rattle companies around the world. The common assumption is that...

Pundits of globalization predict the eventual demise of the stakeholder corporate governance model found in Europe and Japan and its replacement by the Anglo-American shareholder model. Were this to occur, it would sharply change the relationship of employees to their employer in many parts of...

This essay surveys economic thought in Britain and the United States to assess the influence that economists have had on developments in the marketplace and in government (and also to show reverse causation; economic thinking is less free of historical circumstances than economists appreciate)....

Those who view Europe as having insufficient geographic mobility often draw a comparison to the United States, where mobility is higher. But the disparity in mobility is not an innate characteristic differentiating European and U.S. labor markets. Rather, mobility rates have fluctuated over time...

Until the mid-nineteenth century, English and American courts held that indefinite employment contracts could not be terminated at will. The stance was a legacy of strictures found in the Statute of Artificers. But by the turn of the century, English and American law no longer agreed. In...

These days, Americans seem to take their corporate governance model for granted. Shareholder interests are what matter. But this essay traces the history of corporate governance to show that such models change over time. And they are different in other nations, such as Japan. I argue that...