Cor­por­ate Gov­ernance and Fin­ance

Course content

The course develops economic and behavioral theories as a framework for analyzing corporate governance and value creation. For example shareholder value maximization can be implemented through contestable ownership, removal of takeover barriers, independent boards, stock option programs and legal protection of minority investors. Stakeholder value, sustainability or social objectives can be implemented through other governance structures. Corporate governance in turn has implications for financial objectives, for example risk preferences or attention to stakeholders.  The course will cover agency and other governance theories, alternative governance mechanisms, international corporate governance, corporate governance codes, ownership structure, boards ,executive compensation and compliance.
 

The aim of this course is to gain an in-depth understanding of corporate governance and how corporate governance interacts with corporate finance to influence corporate performance and sustainability. The course will introduce the students to corporate governance issues and teach them to analyse how different corporate governance mechanisms – like ownership and board structure, legal systems and incentives – contribute to the solution of agency problems and thereby influence corporate economic  performance and sustainablity. The couse will explain how company boards exercise their key functions of stewardship, strategy, succession and supervision. Using this framework the course will then study the impact of corporate governance on corporate performance depending on company specific factors. The course will enable students to analyse corporate governance issues relevant to an individual company including an assessment of how ownership, board structure and national corporate governance systems influence company behaviour and performance.