Corporate Governance, Competition, the New International Financial Architecture and Large Corporations in Emerging Markets

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive environment being caused by the enormous international merger movement in advanced countries. The paper's main conclusions include: The thesis that the deeper causes of the Asian crisis were the flawed systems of corporate governance and a poor competitive environment in the affected countries is not supported by evidence. Emerging markets, as well as European countries have successful records of fast long-term growth with different governance systems, indeed superior to those of Anglo-Saxon countries. Corporate financing patterns in emerging markets in the 1990s continue to be anomalous, as they were in the 1980s. The claim that developing country conglomerates are inefficient and financially precarious is not supported by evidence or analysis. JEL Codes: G3, L1, L4, O1