> interesting abstract... how do you interpret this? first, is the thesis
>plausible? second, if it's plausible, what's its significance? would this
>imply, for instance, that the multinationalization of capital could be
>restrained or scaled back by, for instance, changing rules about the relation
>between management and ownership?
I read the paper yesterday, and it wasn't a lot more informative than the abstract. Basically, MNCs have a lower stock market value than otherwise similar domestic corporations, and have a lower return on assets. The authors speculate that because senior execs of MNCs own relatively little stock, they choose (as if Michael Jensen never lived!) to expand assets not for the benefit of shareholders, but for the satisfaction of their own egos: they want to be masters of a bigger pond. Not sure about their thesis, but this should call into question some of the more exuberant globalization rhetoric, both apologist and alarmist. Specifically, the image of MNCs exploiting poorer countries to earn superprofits doesn't seem to comport with the empirical evidence.
As for management & ownership - turn firms over to the workers, I say.
Doug