In this remarkable volume, Randall K. Morck and a prominent team of economic researchers present new empirical research that suggests that each side of the debate has something to offer the other. Free enterprise and well-developed financial systems are proven to produce growth in those countries that have them. But research also suggests that in some other capitalist countries, arrangements truly do concentrate corporate ownership in the hands of a few wealthy families. A History of Corporate Governance around the World sets the stage for this debate by laying out how capitalism differs in different settings and how those disparities arose in pre-industrial and colonial economies and shaped subsequent institutions. This volume provides historical studies of the patterns of corporate governance in several countries—including the large industrial economies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; larger developing economies like China and India; and alternative models like those of the Netherlands and Sweden