The Sarbanes-Oxley Act addressing corporate governance in the U.S. passed almost four years ago, yet unresolved issues linger. This book is valuable for three reasons: It provides a broad overview of the corporate governance landscape, focuses specifically on differences and similarities between the U.S. and Europe, and contains eighteen in-depth summaries of talks by leading practitioners and scholars, including Harvard Business School’s Michael Jensen and Krishna Palepu. All essays result from a high-level conference held in London in November 2004 that was organized by the London School of Economics and New York University.
Positive news, according to the authors, is that stronger laws, more rigorous listing rules, and greater public awareness have all improved corporate governance generally. But the U.S. remains troubled by problems ranging from board-level monitoring failures to risks to the vitality of its financial system from over-regulation. Europe, meanwhile, especially Continental Europe, needs to better protect minority shareholders and improve the independence and responsibility of boards. The authors write of Europe, “A big question for the future is how far these problems should be tackled by legislation or regulation, whether at the national or European Union level.” Chapters examine everything from agency costs of overvalued equity to the universal hot topic of executive pay.
Owen is a senior fellow and Kirchmaier is a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science, while Grant is on sabbatical leave from both the LSE and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.