Corporate Governance: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Corporate Governance: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Edited by Xavier Vives New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 238 pp. $70.00. ISBN 0-521-78164-7.

This conference volume addresses a timely issue-how to understand and improve the governance of the corporation. The past decade has witnessed a widening gap between executive and worker pay, questionable accounting for stock options in top managerial compensation, and a succession of corporate earnings scandals. At the same time, agency-based theories have become the intellectual motor driving corporate governance reform. These theories frame the governance problem as how to get managers to act in the interest of outside shareholders. Does this dominant perspective help us navigate these turbulent waters? Most authors in this volume seem to say "no," but they stop short of suggesting where we might look for guidance.

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