In this article, I use a unique dataset consisting of listed Indian firms that have been indicted for economic malpractice/default or have been non-compliant with laws/ regulations/ guidelines to estimate the stock price impact of regulatory actions against corporate irregularities. The sample...

Shareholder voting is a key part of contemporary American corporate governance. As numerous contemporary battles between corporate management and shareholders illustrate, voting has never been more important. Yet, traditional theory about shareholder voting, rooted in concepts of residual...

Six new aggregate measures capturing various dimensions of governance provide new evidence of a strong causal relationship from better governance to better development outcomes. In a cross-section of more than 150 countries, Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobaton provide new empirical evidence of a...

This paper reports on the latest update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2006: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government...

Updated governance indicators report estimates of six dimensions of governance for 175 countries in 2000-01. They can be compared with those constructed for 1997-98. Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobaton construct aggregate governance indicators for six dimensions of governance, covering 175...

The primary purpose for the doctrine of separate legal personality is to encourage entrepreneurship, by shifting the risks of business failure away from entrepreneurs to creditors and other risk bearers. Unfortunately this doctrine is subject to abuse by corporate controllers, which prompted the...

A long-recognized phenomenon in capital markets is the underinvestment in foreign equity securities, known as equity home bias. Our study examines the effect of board independence on the firms' ability to attract foreign equity capital. After accounting for potential endogeneity, we document...

Economic growth is below what would be needed to resume rapid convergence to average OECD living standards. On-going efforts to improve the business climate are laudable, but need to be widened and strengthened. Much progress has been achieved in reducing red tape, but it is only recently that...