The paper presents the actual ownership structure of public companies in Bulgaria on the basis of a survey of 104 of the companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. It discusses as well the problems of disclosure of ownership information, focusing on the transposition of the EC Large...

The process of improving Corporate Governance in emerging markets touches on a number of different aspects of the market organization. One essential area is the regulation, scope, timing and of procedure for mandatory disclosure of information. Disclosure is very important for investors, since...

The use of equity derivatives to conceal economic ownership of shares (“hidden ownership”) is increasingly drawing attention from the financial community, as is the exercise of voting power without corresponding economic interest (“empty voting”). Market participants and commentators...

This paper deals with the evolution of corporate governance institutions that were imported into Russia in the 1990s. We use empirical evidence from firms, mainly in the banking industry, to test theoretical assumptions. Study of objective interests of various stakeholders prompts a hypo-thesis...

The purpose of the article is to illustrate the main characteristics of the corporate governance challenge facing the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEE) and to subsequently determine and assess the extensiveness and effectiveness of corporate governance regulation in these countries....

The use of equity derivatives to conceal economic ownership of shares (“hidden ownership”) is increasingly drawing attention from the financial community, as is the exercise of voting power without corresponding economic interest (“empty voting”). Market participants and commentators...

In view of recent corporate scandals, it is argued that corporate governance can learn from public governance. Institutions devised to control and discipline the behaviour of executives in the political sphere can give new insights into how to improve the governance of firms. Some proposal such...

This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset on legal protection of shareholders over a 36 year period, 1970-2005 for four advanced countries, UK, France, Germany and the US. It examines two aspects of the legal origin hypothesis - whether shareholder protection is higher in the common law...

The dominance of foreign capital in banking sector in the CEE countries created vulnerabilities that have been a contributing cause of recent financial crisis in the region. The question is whether the corporate governance structure of banks seemed to constrain or rather stimulate the potential...

In this study, we examine the wealth effects of regulatory changes intended to improve corporate governance by protecting minority shareholders from expropriation by controlling shareholders. Using data from publicly traded Chinese firms, we find that these new regulations significantly...