Does Company Ownership Matter?

The Cournot Centre series

Edited by Jean-Philippe Touffut, Director, Cournot Centre, Paris, France

Do modes of management depend on company ownership? Does macroeconomic performance rely on shareholder value? The contributions collected in this book explore these questions from economic, historical and legal perspectives. They examine company ownership through the study of national institutions, with particular focus on North America and Europe. The twelve economic and legal specialists of this volume seek to explain why firms organized along the shareholder model have not outperformed other forms of ownership. Answers lie in the historical and institutional background of each country.

‘The 2008 financial crisis has caused the validity of the shareholder-oriented model to be scrutinized. Was the model right? Was it just that the regulations were inadequate, or was it the financiers’ greed? Should we not have earnestly searched for another model? Originally presented a year before the crisis, the papers in this volume did more than anticipate such debate. This book provides excellent food for thought for anyone interested in how to reconstruct the corporate economy.’
– Masahiko Aoki, Stanford University, US