Improving corporate governance in state-owned corporations in China: which way forward?

This article discusses corporate governance in China. It outlines the basic agency problem in Chinese listed companies and questions the effectiveness of the current mechanisms employed to improve their standards of governance. Importantly, it considers alternative means through which corporate practice in China can be brought into line with international expectations and stresses the urgency with which this task must be tackled. It concludes that regulators in China must construct a corporate governance model which is compatible with its domestic setting and not rush to adopt governance initiatives modelled on those in cultures which are fundamentally different in the hope of also reproducing their success

The financial system and economic growth in the United Kingdom: a disaggregated time series approach

This thesis examines the relationship between the development of the financial system and economic growth in the United Kingdom, using a time series econometric methodology. It extends the existing literature in three ways. First, it applies a disaggregated approach, testing the relationship not only at the aggregate level, but also for the manufacturing and service sectors of the UK. This allows the modeling to be driven by the financial characteristics of each sector, thereby providing a firmer foundation for policy recommendations. Second, `fmance-augmented' production functions are estimated throughout, thus yielding coefficients that are theoretically consistent and interpretable. The empirical results suggest that the aggregate economy faces decreasing returns to scale, the manufacturing sector exhibits increasing returns to scale while the service sector appears to display either constant or decreasing returns. Third, both these innovations mean that the study is also able to make a contribution to the on-going sectoral productivity and policy debates in the UK, emphasising the role of finance in this process. The study finds evidence that the evolution of the finance-output relationship in the UK is sector-specific, in that the development of the stock market is positively associated with long-run output, both at the aggregate level and for the manufacturing sector, whereas banking sector development is found to be important for service sector output

Public Funding, Governance and Passthrough Efficiency in Large UK Charities

This paper provides empirical evidence on how external governance mechanisms (e.g. the reporting and monitoring mandated under government funding contracts) and internal governance mechanisms (e.g. the adoption of corporate governance codes and traditional charity governance mechanisms) are related to the efficiency with which large UK charities meet their charitable spending objects. The evidence indicates that government funding and governance requirements, and traditional charity structures, are positively related to efficiency, whereas the adoption of business-type corporate governance codes is not. Copyright (c) 2006 The Author; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The Role, Power and Influence of Company Chairs

This paper develops an analytical framework to depict the heterogeneity that characterises the role of board chair and demonstrate the potential variability in how chairs operate boards and exercise power and influence on strategy, control and resource related tasks at board level. Theories of power and influence, as applied to top management teams and boards of directors, are explicated within the context of contemporary governance practices that are establishing the role of the board chair as distinct to that of the chief executive officer. Specifically, the paper maps sources of power and varying contemporary chair practices, including chair nomenclature (i.e. executive vs. non-executive chairs), chair origin (insider vs. outsider) and chair time (full-time vs. part-time). A number of theoretical chair-power models emerge from this analysis and are subject to empirical analysis using data collected from 160 chairs of 500 FTSE-listed companies. Theoretically and empirically, the paper complements structural approaches to studying boards with attention to behaviour on boards. By linking board structure, board process and the exercise of influence, the study reveals both differences amongst chairs in how they run the board, but also that chairs' differ in the influence they exert on board-related tasks. Full-time executive chairs exert their greatest influence in strategy and resource dependence tasks whereas part-time, non-executive chairs seem to exert more influence over monitoring and control tasks

INNER AND OUTER INTERCANTHAL DISTANCES IN A NIGERIAN POPULATION

This study investigated the inner and outer intercanthal distances in a Nigeria population. Materials and Methods: The cross sectional study was  carried  on 384 adults (males and females) between the ages of 18-35years. This study was carried in Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria. A pair of digital venier calipers was used to carry out anthropometric measurement of the inner and outer intercanthal distances measured between the medial and lateral ends of the palpebral fissures respectively.The canthal index (CI) was calculated as [ICD x 100]/OCD. Simple descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated from the data obtained. Gender and age differences were scrutinized using the students’ t-test and correlation respectively. P value &lt;0.05 was accepted as significant difference.  Results: The mean canthal dimensions for the Nigerian population was inner-canthal distance (38.65±1.49mm), outer-canthal distance (76.25±4.03mm), and canthal index (50.85±3.50). According to gender, inner-canthal distance was 39.15±1.44mm and 38.15±1.38mm, outer-canthal distance was 76.59±4.13mm and 75.89±3.91mm, and canthal index was 51.26±3.46 and 50.41±3.52 for male and female respectively. There was a significant difference (p&lt;0.05) in the inner-canthal distance and canthal index between male and female. There was insignificant correlation between: age and inner-canthal distance (r= 0.082, p= 0.108), age and outer-canthal distance (r= -0.024, p= 0.641), and age and canthal index (r= 0.064, p=0.213). Conclusion: Sexual dimorphism occurred as the inner canthal distance and canthal index were significantly higher in males compared to females in the Nigerian population.</jats:p