Australia Inside/Out: The Corporate Governance System of the Australian Listed Market

Posted: 12 Sep 2005

See all articles by Alan J. Dignam

Alan J. Dignam

Queen Mary University of London - School of Law

Michael Galanis

University of Manchester - School of Law; The University of Manchester

Abstract

This article concerns the classification of the corporate governance system of Australia's listed market. Claims are often made that it is an outsider system of ownership and control, similar to that of the UK and the US. Through an examination of share ownership patterns, institutional investor activism, private rent extraction, the market for corporate control and blocks to information flow, this article argues that the corporate governance system of Australia's listed market in fact has many of the characteristics associated with insider systems. The misclassification of the corporate governance system of Australia's listed market has significant impacts for the general classification of insider and outsider systems, as it may be an example of an insider system converging to an outsider system. The misclassification also has significant impacts for the Australian reform agenda, as reforms based on the assumption that the Australian listed market has an outsider system of corporate governance may be inappropriate and damaging.

Keywords: Australian corporate governance, insider system, outsider system, ownership and control, Australian listed companies, convergence, corporate reform, takeovers, disclosure, la porta, concentrated ownership, institutional investors

JEL Classification: K20, K21, K23

Suggested Citation

Dignam, Alan J. and Galanis, Michael and Galanis, Michael, Australia Inside/Out: The Corporate Governance System of the Australian Listed Market. Melbourne University Law Review, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 623-653, December 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=798284

Alan J. Dignam (Contact Author)

Queen Mary University of London - School of Law ( email )

67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London, WC2A 3JB
United Kingdom
0207 8828123 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/staff/dignam.html

Michael Galanis

University of Manchester - School of Law ( email )

United Kingdom

The University of Manchester ( email )

Oxford Road
Manchester, N/A M13 9PL
United Kingdom

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