Studies in International Corporate Finance and Governance Systems: A Comparison of the U.S., Japan, and Europe

The past decade has given rise to a growing debate over the relative efficiency of different national economic systems. There are two basic corporate finance and governance systems that predominate in today's developed economies. One is the Anglo-American market based model, with widely dispersed shareholders and a fairly vigorous corporate control market. The other is the Japanese and German relationship based system, with its large bank and intercorporate holdings (and conspicuous absence of takeovers). Given the increasing globalization of business, which of these two systems can be expected to prevail over time? Or will the most valuable aspects of each be blended into a single new system? The story now being told by economists and management experts -- one that this book presents -- is a complicated one. Here is a sampling of the arguments: Corporate strategist Michael Porter states that the U.S. system of allocating capital both within and across companies appears to be failing...