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This book offers an in-depth analysis of the political economy of soybean production in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, by identifying the dominant private and public actors and control mechanisms that have given rise to a corporate-driven, vertically integrated system of regionalized agricultural production in the Southern Cone of South America. The current agricultural boom surrounding soybean production has been aided by aggressive new agro-technologies, including biotechnology, leading to massive organizational changes in the agricultural sector and a significant rise in the power of special interest groups and corporations. Despite having similar initial production conditions, the pattern of economic activity surrounding soybean production in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, continues to be largely determined by the needs of the multinational corporations involved, rather than national considerations of comparative advantage. The author uses these findings to argue that the new international model of agricultural production empowers chemical and trading multinational companies over national governments.
Back in the early 1990s, economists and policy makers had high expectations about the prospects for domestic capital market development in emerging economies, particularly in Latin America. Unfortunately, they are now faced with disheartening results. Stock and bond markets remain illiquid and segmented. Debt is concentrated at the short end of the maturity spectrum and denominated in foreign currency, exposing countries to maturity and currency risk. Capital markets in Latin America look particularly underdeveloped when considering the many efforts undertaken to improve the macroeconomic environment and to reform the institutions believed to foster capital market development. The disappoint...
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'Investor Protection and Corporate Governance' analyzes the impact of corporate governance on firm performance and valuation. Using unique datasets gathered at the firm-level the first such data in the region and results from a homogeneous corporate governance questionnaire, the book examines corporate governance characteristics, ownership structures, dividend policies, and performance measures. The book's analysis reveals the very high levels of ownership and voting rights concentrations and monolithic governance structures in the largest samples of Latin American companies up to now, and new data emphasize the importance of specific characteristics of the investor protection regimes in several Latin American countries. By and large, those firms with better governance measures across several dimensions are granted higher valuations and thus lower cost of capital. This title will be useful to researchers, policy makers, government officials, and other professionals involved in corporate governance, economic policy, and business finance, law, and management.
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Thompson draws on service records and numerous other archival sources that few earlier scholars have seen in this comprehensive work.