This paper reviews the tasks and design of audit committees, increasingly recommended as a way to strengthen financial accountability and good central bank governance. It outlines the motivations for the establishment of audit committees in commercial corporations and public sector entities, and...

This paper discusses a detailed assessment report on the observance of China’s compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commission's objectives and principles of securities regulation. The reform of nontradable shares introduced a market-based pricing system for...

This study reviews selected issues on investor protection and corporate governance in Australia, and concludes that the corporate governance framework for Australian-listed companies is largely healthy and dynamic. Shareholder activism is an important element of corporate governance because it...

This paper investigates the relationship between ownership concentration and enterprise performance in Ukraine. Using data on 376 medium and large enterprises, it finds that ownership concentration is positively associated with enterprise performance in Ukraine. The paper also finds that...

Japan’s high corporate savings might be holding back growth. We focus on the causes and consequences of the current corporate behavior and suggest options for reform. In particular, Japan’s weak corporate governance—as measured by available indexes—might be...

This Selected Issues paper for Italy presents updated estimates of potential growth for Italy, using new techniques that draw on co-movements of output, employment, and inflation over the business cycle to distinguish trends from cycles. The paper provides an assessment of an...

Traditionally, the impacts of the rights of financial institutions and workers on corporate performance have been analyzed independently. Yet, theory clearly indicates that the combination of relative powers of different stakeholders affects a firm overall performance. Using U.S. state level and...

This paper proposes a new approach to quantifying the effects of corporate governance reforms, by focusing on the dynamics of the voting premiums, a measure of the private benefits of control in a corporation. The results indicate that the reforms have been successful in reducing the voting...

While public financial institutions (such as public development banks) are commonly associated with developing countries, in fact they are prevalent in the developed world as well. We study a sample of public financial institutions in industrialized countries and identify dominant trends in...

The global financial crisis affected microfinance institutions (MFIs) as lending growth was constrained by scarcer borrowing opportunities, while the economic slowdown negatively impacted asset quality and profitability. It also brought to the fore the relatively high interest rates that MFIs...