The economics of corporate governance and mergers ch. 1. The economics of corporate governance and mergers Klaus Gugler and B. Burcin Yurtoglu ch. 2. Legal origin shareholder protection and the stock market : new challenges from time series analysis Sonja Fagernäs Prabirjit Sarkar and Ajit Singh ch. 3. Corporate governance and the public interest : the way forward J. Robert Branston Keith Cowling and Roger Sugden ch. 4. Corporate boards of directors : a precautionary perspective Oliver E. Williamson ch. 5. Corporate governance : a review of the role of banks Hans Degryse Steven Ongena and Günseli Tümer Alkan ch. 6. Competition between profit seekers and non profit firms : the case of German banking Manfred Neumann Richard Reichel and Jürgen Weigand ch. 7. Mergers : an overview Stephen Martin ch. 8. A new retrospective on mergers F.M. Scherer ch. 9. Mergers and efficiency : theory empirical evidence and competition policy in Japan Hiroyuki Odagiri ch. 10. UK corporate governance and takeover performance Andy Cosh Paul Guest and Alan Hughes ch. 11. Mergers and alliances in pharmaceuticals : effects on innovation and r&d productivity Henry Grabowski and Margaret Kyle ch. 12. Endogenous horizontal mergers in dynamic markets Engelbert J. Dockner Andrea Gaunersdorfer and Steffen Jørgensen ch. 13. Vertical mergers in markets with network effects Gerhard Clemenz ch. 14. The impact of competition on macroeconomic performance Karl Aiginger This book provides an insightful view of major issues in the economics of corporate governance (CG) and mergers. It presents a systematic update on the developments in the two fields during the last decade as well as highlighting the neglected topics in CG research such as the role of boards CG and public interest and the relation of CG to mergers. Two important conclusions can be drawn from this book: the first is that corporate governance systems that better align shareholders and managers interests lead to better corporate performance; second there is an important relationship between CG structures and the quality of firm decision making one of the most important being the decision to merge or take over another firm