Did Sarbanes Oxley Foster a Global Shift in Corporate Governance? Evidence of change in European Union Countries

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year : 2007

Issue : Mar-May

Title : Did Sarbanes Oxley Foster a Global Shift in Corporate Governance? Evidence of change in European Union Countries 

Author Name : Kathryn Hansen, Edward Lance Monsour 

Synopsis : 

With passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July, 2002, a revolution in corporate governance procedures took place.  Certainly, given the accounting, internal control, and governance problems in U.S. companies in the early 2000s, change was necessary.  But what happened in other countries with developed economies and sophisticated financial markets?  Accounting scandals of the same magnitude certainly were not evident.  Did the countries of the European Union follow in the U.S.’s footsteps to try to prevent their own version of WorldCom and Enron or were similar internal control and corporate governance procedures already in place?  What this paper accomplishes is a comparison of the criteria from Sarbanes-Oxley to existing procedures and subsequent changes made in the EU and EU countries.