How Shareholder Reforms Can Pay Foreign Policy Dividends

Corporate governance must be a top U.S. foreign policy priority, according to the authors of this timely analysis. Not only can good governance practices facilitate free trade by taking many disputes off the trade agenda, they can also stabilize the financial system by avoiding expensive and unpopular bailouts. To achieve these goals, however, U.S. leaders must engage other countries in serious reform of governance systems around the world. This paper argues that U.S. foreign policymakers must accelerate the pace of corporate governance reform. The United States should require fuller disclosure of institutional investors corporate governance policies, encourage the convergence of differing accounting standards, expand official support for an international corporate governance standard, endorse regulatory changes that promote contests for control of publicly traded firms, and place responsibility for corporate governance policy at a senior level in Washington.