Corporate Governance: Theoretical and Empirical Research

Author: Xavier Vives
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Corporate governance is an area of highly active academic research, accompanied by intense public discussion. In recent years, many issues have attracted widespread interest, such as the generalization of the "shareholder value" perspective and institutional investment, legislative efforts on the "best practices" of directors (boards), and debates over which system—whether market-based or bank-based (i.e., relationship-based)—is more beneficial for the economy. The outcome of this debate also holds significant implications for developing countries and economies in transition. The articles included in this book were presented at the conference "New Perspectives on Corporate Governance," held in Barcelona in 1998. The conference was organized by the d'Analisi Economic Institute and funded by the Catalan Finance Institute. The purpose of this book is to showcase the latest developments in corporate governance theory and empirical research. The first chapter is an introduction that provides an overview of the book's themes, reviews the consensus already reached, outlines the contributions of the subsequent chapters, and highlights the importance of corporate governance issues. The following chapters cover topics such as the role of competition and its relationship with corporate governance, the political economy of corporate governance, the impact of different corporate governance systems on economic performance, the governance regime of Silicon Valley venture capital, and human capital and control in new firms.
About the Author: Xavier Vives is a professor of economics and finance and a distinguished visiting professor at INSEAD's European Research Program, Portugal. He is a researcher at the Center for Economic Policy Research and served as the head of the Industrial Organization Research Program from 1991 to 1997. From 2000 to 2003, he served as a member of the editorial board of Economía: Revista de Economía Aplicada. From 1991 to 2001, he was the director of the d'Analisi Economic Institute (CSIC, Barcelona). He has taught at Harvard University, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. Professor Vives received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983. Throughout his academic career, he has lectured on industrial organization, competitive strategy, microeconomics, game theory, banking, and financial markets at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. His research spans industrial organization, information economics, banking, and finance. He has published articles in leading international economics journals and has edited and co-authored books such as Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Methods (MIT Press, 1999), Corporate Governance: Theory and Evidence (CUP, 2000), and Capital Markets and Financial Intermediation (CUP, 1993). He is also an editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association and a co-editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Since 1992, he has been a member of the Econometric Society and has received several research awards. His current research areas include oligopoly pricing mechanisms, banking crises, insider trading rules, competitive strategy, and corporate headquarters location. Professor Vives serves as a consultant to the World Bank and the European Commission on competition and regulatory issues and is also an advisor to major multinational corporations.