TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dyck,Alexander
AU  - Zingales,Luigi
TI  - The Corporate Governance Role of the Media
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9309
PY  - 2002
Y2  - November 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9309
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9309.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alexander Dyck
Joseph L. Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
105 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 3E6
Tel: 416/946-0819
Fax: 416/978-5433
E-Mail: adyck@rotman.utoronto.ca

Luigi Zingales
Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago
5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-3196
Fax: 773/834-2081
E-Mail: luigi.zingales@ChicagoBooth.edu
AB  - In this paper we discuss the role of the media in pressuring corporate managers and directors to behave in ways that are 'socially acceptable'. Sometimes this coincides with shareholders' value maximization, others not. We provide both anecdotal and systematic evidence that media affect companies' policy toward the environment and the amount of corporate resources that are diverted to the sole advantage of controlling shareholders. Our results have important consequences for the focus of the corporate governance debate and for the feasibility of reforms aimed at improving corporate governance around the world.
ER  -