SOME DIFFERENCES IN CORPORATE STRUCTURE IN GERMANY, JAPAN, AND THE UNITED-STATES

In the large German and Japanese firm, senior managers share power with financial intermediaries by using ownership structures that could not survive under U.S. law. Professor Roe argues that current corporate theories seem to need a political theory to explain the different corporate structures fully. Although the foreign systems might appear to be approaching the American securitization, the data suggest stability in foreign stock ownership in big blocks. Indeed, Professor Roe finds that U.S. structures are vaguely approaching the foreign, via institutional blocks and activism. Some forces influencing the foreign firms are political, again suggesting that current economic theories need to be expanded to account for them. Finally, although the bank-centered ownership structures abroad are no blueprint for the United States, they show that new forms are possible and worth permitting.