'Revisiting the Case for Employee Participation in Corporate Governance' - Andreas Kokkinis: 3CL Travers Smith Seminar

Dr Andreas Kokkinis of the University of Warwick gave a lecture entitled "Revisiting the Case for Employee Participation in Corporate Governance" on 30 November 2018 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of 3CL. In this seminar, Dr Kokkinis revisits the theory of firm ownership to examine the potential economic benefits of employee participation in corporate governance. Contrary to the standard corporate contractarian claim that employee participation is inefficient, because it does not arise frequently as a result of market forces, he demonstrates that the supposed superiority of the current Anglo-American system cannot be logically deduced. Some level of employee participation can be optimal for some firms, and available evidence indicates that participation brings advantages in terms of productivity. To understand the nature of these advantages and the best way to design a legal framework for participation, Dr Kokkinis conducts a case study of the German system of codetermination. Taking into account the peculiarities of the UK economy and corporate governance system, he argues that employee board representation is likely to bring positive economic outcomes. This, however, presupposes broad acceptance of participation by business managers and institutional investors, as well as employees. For more information see the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law website at http://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/