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Corporate Governance Reform For The 21st Century: A Critical Reassessment Of The Shareholder Primacy Model, Carol Liao

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This article questions the efficiency of the shareholder primacy model of corporate governance in light of the financial calamities that have plagued the first decade of the 21st century. Reform efforts following the global financial crisis have focused on failures in securities regulation, but that is only part of the story. Effective reform measures must also address the legal and normative prescriptions found within existing governance structures, and the collateral effect those prescriptions have on political and regulatory inaction.

There was strong ideological support for the shareholder primacy model at the start of the century. Following the corporate and accounting …