Culture, Law, and Finance: Cultural Dimensions of Corporate Governance Laws

64 Pages Posted: 23 Jul 2001

See all articles by Amir N. Licht

Amir N. Licht

Reichman University; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Chanan Goldschmidt

Reichman University - Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliyah - Harry Radziner School of Law

Shalom H. Schwartz

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Department of Psychology; National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

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Abstract

Using cross-sectional samples of nations from around the world and drawing on two models of cultural dimensions in cross-cultural psychology, we analyze the relations between investors' legal rights - as reflected in the indices of La Porta et al. (LLSV) - and national cultural profiles. We find that grouping countries according to legal families - the cornerstone of LLSV's legal approach - provides only a partial depiction of the universe of corporate governance regimes. Our findings cast particular doubt on the alleged supremacy of statutes in common law countries in protecting creditors and, hence, in protecting investors in general. We also find that indices of voting rights and creditor rights correlate with cultural dimensions, but that an index of remedial rights does not. These findings have implications for studying diversity and convergence in corporate governance systems and for the systematic analysis of the interface between law and culture.

Suggested Citation

Licht, Amir N. and Goldschmidt, Chanan and Schwartz, Shalom H., Culture, Law, and Finance: Cultural Dimensions of Corporate Governance Laws. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=277613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.277613

Amir N. Licht (Contact Author)

Reichman University ( email )

Israel

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium
952-9-9513323 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http:/www.ecgi.org

Chanan Goldschmidt

Reichman University - Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliyah - Harry Radziner School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 167
Herzliya, 46150
Israel

Shalom H. Schwartz

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Department of Psychology ( email )

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

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