Explaining Corporate Governance: Boards, Bylaws, and Charter Provisions
Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance Working Paper No. 2003-03
49 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2003
Date Written: August 21, 2003
Abstract
We provide arguments and present evidence that corporate governance structures are endogenous responses to the costs and benefits firms face when they choose the mechanisms that comprise those structures. In particular, an industry's investment opportunities, product uniqueness, competitive environment, information environment, and leverage help explain its corporate governance. Examining groups of similar corporate governance mechanisms shows that firm and industry factors can have quite different associations (in strength and direction) with the monitoring capabilities of the board of directors versus the shareholder orientation of corporate charter provisions. Although industry factors play a dominant role in explaining an index of total governance, we find that firm and industry factors contribute almost equally in explaining the variation of sub-indices capturing aspects of board structure and charter provision use.
Keywords: Corporate Governance, Endogeneity, Board of Directors, Charter Provisions
JEL Classification: G30, G34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Corporate Governance and Equity Prices
By Paul A. Gompers, Joy L. Ishii, ...
-
What Matters in Corporate Governance?
By Lucian A. Bebchuk, Alma Cohen, ...
-
Governance Mechanisms and Equity Prices
By Martijn Cremers and Vinay B. Nair
-
Did New Regulations Target the Relevant Corporate Governance Attributes?
By Reena Aggarwal and Rohan Williamson
-
Governance Mechanisms and Bond Prices
By Martijn Cremers, Vinay B. Nair, ...
-
Corporate Governance and Merger Activity in the U.S.: Making Sense of the 1980s and 1990s
-
Corporate Governance and Merger Activity in the U.S.: Making Sense of the 1980s and 1990s
-
The Costs of Entrenched Boards
By Lucian A. Bebchuk and Alma Cohen