Governance Challenges of Listed State-Owned Enterprises Around the World: National Experiences and a Framework for Reform

66 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2017 Last revised: 15 May 2017

See all articles by Curtis J. Milhaupt

Curtis J. Milhaupt

Stanford Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute

Mariana Pargendler

Harvard University - Harvard Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute

Date Written: April 1, 2017

Abstract

Despite predictions of their demise in the aftermath of the collapse of socialist economies in Eastern Europe, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are very much alive in the global economy. The relevance of listed SOEs — firms still subject to government ownership, a portion of whose shares are traded on public stock markets — has persisted and even increased around the world, as policymakers have encouraged the partial floating of SOE shares either as a first step toward, or as an alternative to, privatization. In this article, we evaluate the governance challenges associated with mixed ownership of enterprise, and examine a variety of national approaches to the governance of listed SOEs, with a view to framing a robust policy discussion in the many countries where SOE reform is a topic of major significance. We describe the evolution and current status of the institutional framework applicable to listed SOEs in eight different jurisdictions, reflecting a variety of economic, legal, and political environments: France, the United States, Norway, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and China. We leverage the lessons from this comparative analysis to critique the policy prescriptions of international agencies such as the OECD, and to frame policy suggestions of our own.

Keywords: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), corporate governance, mixed ownership

JEL Classification: G38, K22, L33, P50

Suggested Citation

Milhaupt, Curtis J. and Pargendler, Mariana, Governance Challenges of Listed State-Owned Enterprises Around the World: National Experiences and a Framework for Reform (April 1, 2017). Cornell International Law Journal, Vol. 50, No. 3 (2017 Forthcoming), European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) - Law Working Paper No. 352/2017, FGV Direito SP Research Paper Series No. 155, NYU Law and Economics Research Paper No. 17-12, Columbia Law and Economics Working Paper No. 566, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2942193

Curtis J. Milhaupt

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States

European Corporate Governance Institute ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Mariana Pargendler (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Law School ( email )

1563 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

European Corporate Governance Institute ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

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