TY - JOUR T1 - International Trends in Corporate Governance JF - Special Issues SP - 116 LP - 121 VL - 2003 IS - 2 AU - Stephen Davis Y1 - 2003/09/21 UR - https://pm-research.com/content/2003/2/116.abstract N2 - A recent study compares international corporate governance developments in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States in four categories: board structure, voting rights, disclosure, and takeover defenses. Findings, mainly in 2002, reveal both slow progress and striking weaknesses in the architecture of corporate governance. In particular, new measurements designed to test management influence over boards expose a major underlying problem: boards are far less independent than is generally recognized, even when they appear to be stocked with outsiders. The fresh data raise questions about risks associated with inadequate oversight of management, suppressing scores of every surveyed market but France, where advances in law, code, and practice yielded a modest rise. Overall, the study seems to show a disconnect between the reformers and the reformed. Despite forceful initiatives by legislators, regulators, stock exchanges, and code-writers, who responded to public demand with far-reaching corporate governance changes, companies have made remarkably slow progress on the ground, exhibiting reluctance to embrace reform. ER -