February 2017

04Feb

Corporate Governance: Challenges For Latin America

By Fernando Lefort & Eduardo Walker Corporate Governance relates to mechanisms through which providers of resources to the firm get their share of resources in return. Adequate governance practices help develop capital markets and assist market forces in attaining efficient contracts. Convincing evidence exists that well developed capital markets have an important impact on economic performance, growth and productivity. Our motivation for studying the corporate governance challenges faced by Latin America partly arises from a conviction that academic research on...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing,
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04Feb

The Effects Of Economic And Political Shocks On Corporate Governance Systems In Chile

By Fernando Lefort & Eduardo Walker We present a synthesis of the major political and economic events that have influenced the development of laws and capital markets in Chile, and their impact on the evolution of Chilean conglomerates through time. We find that laws and regulations in Chile have been extremely «path dependent», corresponding in most cases to reactions to crises or major events, and argue that these events have persistently shaped corporate governance systems in Chile. We identify the...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing,
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04Feb

What Enron Means for the Management and Control of the Modern Business Corporation: Some Initial Reflections

The Enron case challenges some of the core beliefs and practices that have underpinned various positions in the debates about corporate law and governance, including mergers and acquisitions, since the 1980s. In particular, Enron raises at least the following problems for the received model of corporate governance: First, it provides another set of reasons to question the strength of the efficient market hypothesis, here, the company's dizzyingly high stock price despite transparently irrational reliance on its auditors' compromised certification. Second, it...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Investing, Pension design, ,
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04Feb

Sustainability of Pension Systems in Europe – The Demographic Challenge

By Chris Daykin Fiscal sustainability of pensions is a serious issue in Europe because of the ageing of the population but there is also concern that reformed pensions may not be adequate. Actuaries have always been seen as major players in employer-sponsored pension schemes and insured pensions but have often not been very visible in commenting on public policy issues concerning the pension system as a whole. This article introduces the work being done by the Actuarial Association of Europe...

February 4, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market,
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04Feb

The German Social Market in the World of Global Finance: Pension Investment Management and the Limits of Consensual Decision Making

By Gordon L. Clark, Daniel Mansfield & Adam Tickell In a previous paper we emphasised the changing national and international accounting standards used to measure net pension liability. Beginning with the implications of this analysis for the financing of German employer-sponsored pensions, in this paper we focus upon the internal management of corporate pension assets and liabilities. Two issues drive the analysis. One has to do with the emerging coalescence of interests joining corporate management and shareholders in relation to the management...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing,
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04Feb

The Rise of Pension Fund Capitalism in Europe: An Unseen Revolution?

By Adam Dixon In recent years European countries have begun to reform their pension systems favouring funded to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) social security systems and supporting the creation of more 2nd and 3rd pillar funded retirement schemes. Though funded pensions remain small in most European countries, they are growing significantly and may limit the persistence of strong 'varieties of capitalism' by providing an endogenous source of change to economic organisation and corporate governance. To explore this scenario this article examines recent...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing, System Sustainability, ,
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04Feb

The Embedded Firm: Corporate Governance, Labor, and Finance Capitalism

By Peer C. Zumbansen & Cynthia A. Williams This paper constitutes the introduction to an edited collection, THE EMBEDDED FIRM: LABOR, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE CAPITALISM (Cambridge University Press, 2011). This book brings together contributions from law, economics, sociology and politics in order to evaluate the effects of the shift to shareholder primacy in both the United States and the United Kingdom, in the context of an increasingly financialized economy. Contributors include Ruth Aguilera, William Allen, Harry Arthurs, Blanaid Clark,...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Labor Market, ,
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January 2017

12Jan

Trusts No More: Rethinking the Regulation of Retirement Savings in the United States

By Natalya Shnitser - The regulation of private and public pension plans in the United States begins with the premise that employer-sponsored plans resemble traditional donative, or gift, trusts. Accordingly, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) famously “imports” major principles of donative trust law for the regulation of private employer-sponsored pension plans. Statutes regulating state and local government pension plans likewise routinely invoke the structure and standards applicable to donative trusts. Judges, in turn, adjudicate by analogy...

January 12, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Regulation, ,
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