Corporate governance, weak investor protection and financial performance in Southern Europe

The effectiveness of boards of directors is addressed in a context of weak legal protection using a sample of listed firms from Southern. A cross-country and panel data design is used, taking into account the endogeneity problem arising in studies of corporate governance. The results show that there...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: García Ramos, Rebeca|||0000-0001-6844-0190, García Olalla, Myriam|||0000-0001-5106-8820
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repositorio:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/19418
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10902/19418
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Corporate governance
Independent directors
Weak investor protection
Large family shareholders
Performance
Endogeneity
Descripción
Sumario:The effectiveness of boards of directors is addressed in a context of weak legal protection using a sample of listed firms from Southern. A cross-country and panel data design is used, taking into account the endogeneity problem arising in studies of corporate governance. The results show that there is an inverted Ushaped relationship between independent directors and firm performance which allows us to identify the optimal level of independent directors on the board. Moreover, the study determines whether there are significant differences in the optimal level of independent directors depending on the family identity of the large shareholder and whether any such differences are correlated with firm performance. This article has implications for practitioners because the results fail to support good the governance recommendation suggesting that more independent directors are always in the best interest of investors.