Corporate governance in emerging markets

Abstract

Despite deep differences in their political systems, legal regimes, and economic structures, countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China share a recent history of rapid economic growth and capital market expansion. This chapter for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance (Jeffrey N. Gordon & Wolf-Georg Ringe eds.) explores the degree and direction of transformation in emerging markets’ corporate governance in the last decades. Part I surveys the interaction between the ownership structures prevailing in emerging markets and the underlying institutional environment. Part II examines the driving forces of change by comparing the relative roles played by legislatures, regulators, courts, and alternative institutional arrangements in corporate governance reform. Part III then evaluates the degree of convergence and persistence in corporate governance in emerging markets by underscoring the need to consider the particular contextual significance of different practices.