The History of Corporate Governance
University of Cambridge - Faculty of Law; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
December 1, 2011
OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Mike Wright, Donald Siegel, Kevin Keasey and Igor Filatotchev, eds., Oxford University Press, 2013
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 54/2011
ECGI - Law Working Paper No. 184/2012
Abstract:
“Corporate governance” first came into vogue in the 1970s in the United States. Within 25 years corporate governance had become the subject of debate worldwide by academics, regulators, executives and investors. This paper traces developments occurring between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1990s, by which point “corporate governance” was well-entrenched as academic and regulatory shorthand. The paper concludes by surveying briefly recent developments and by maintaining that analysis of the inter-relationship between directors, executives and shareholders of publicly traded companies is likely to be conducted through the conceptual prism of corporate governance for the foreseeable future.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 38
Keywords: corporate governance, board of directors, shareholder activism, agency costs
JEL Classification: G30, G38, K22, N21
