UCL - European Corporate Governance

[LSMS2018]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Karine Cerrada Cristia, Philippe Lambrecht

Language: English

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of the class, students should have sufficient knowledge to understand the different existing types of corporate governance systems in Europe. They should also be able to have a critical understanding of what are the stakes in matters such as enforcing laws or codes, the impact of corporate governance on the firm's financial and non financial reporting , as well as in matters of audit and control.

Main themes

The main themes adressed are :
- The different corporate governance frameworks and mechanisms
- the distinctive feautures of the European governance systems in comparison with other systems
- Europe's practices, codes and models of corporate governance

Content and teaching methods

Content
Part I: Corporate governance models
- Corporate governance definition
- Agency theory versus stakeholder theory
- External and internal factors influencing Corporate Governance
- Anglosaxon model and european continental model of Corporate Governance

Part II The Board of Directors
- the organs of the firm
- the board of directors within the codes and laws: structure,

Part III: the role of institutional investors
- institutional investor's activism
- voting practices of institutional investors

Part IV The role of transparency
- Communication and Corporate Governance
- Internal control and Corporate Governance
- Auditing and Corporate Governance

Methods
In-class activities
- Lectures

At home activities
- Readings to prepare the lecture
- Paper work
- Students presentation

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisites (ideally in terms of competiencies)

Evaluation : Class participation and oral examination, in French or English

Support : Slides provided through icampus

References : Provided during the class

Internationalisation
- international content (does the course tackle international issues related to the course content ?)
- international case study

Corporate features
- case study
- corporate guest

Skills
- presentation skills
- writing skills
- team work
- decision making
- multicultural work
- critical thinking
- assertiveness