Publication: Which Countries Give Investors the Best Protection?
Date
1997-04
ISSN
Published
1997-04
Author(s)
La Porta, Rafael
Lopez de Silanes, Florencio
Shleifer, Andrei
Vishny, Robert
Abstract
Does the owner of a share of stock in
Mexico have the same rights as one in Germany or India? Is a
creditor in Italy as well protected as one in Switzerland?
Do laws protecting investors differ among countries in
systematic ways? Are they sufficiently enforced everywhere?
And if there are differences, do they matter for corporate
finance? This Note reports on a study by the authors that
examines these issues in a sample of countries covering
Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America. The
analysis suggests that countries whose legal rules originate
in the common law tradition tend to protect investors better
than those whose laws originate in the civil law tradition,
especially French civil law.
Citation
“La Porta, Rafael; Lopez de Silanes, Florencio; Shleifer, Andrei; Vishny, Robert. 1997. Which Countries Give Investors the Best Protection?. Viewpoint. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4f91bb38-913e-54f7-9bcc-a56ad12366bf License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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