Center Supported Research
SUMMER 2007
The Center supports research related to corporate governance. There are currently two MCCGP supported research projects under way. Research summaries and papers are forthcoming.
Governance Database
Martijn Cremers, Assistant Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management, is currently assembling a governance database, in a joint project with Professor Allen Ferrell of Harvard Law School. It consists of a wide variety of governance provisions in firms’ charters and by-laws, as well as details on all blockholders – shareholders who own at least 5 percent of the outstanding shares. This database, containing data going back to 1978, is essential to understanding the changes in shareholder rights over the last 25 years and how those relate to the ownership structure or the interaction between management and shareholders.
This research is an ongoing project supported by the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance & Performance and the Harvard Law School. The first stage consisted of research on shareholder rights, going back to 1980, and is being completed. The second, and current, stage involves research on blockholders.
These areas of research are directly relevant to the Center’s core work, especially to the Center’s work on better understanding the relationship between the changing ownership of firms and the changing capital market.
Economic Consequences of Organizational Law
Timothy W. Guinnane, Professor of Economic and History Yale University, is currently working on a project, “Economic Consequences of Organizational Law,” which examines corporate forms and corporate governance over the past 200 years in the US, UK, France, and Germany.
