ECGI LAUNCHES CLINICAL PAPER COMPETITION

Brussels, 2 October 2003 - The European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) has established a Clinical Paper competition to encourage the writing and publication of empirical research papers on corporate governance cases in Europe. The competition is organised by the ECGI in collaboration with the Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), the Swedish Center for Business and Policy Studies (SNS) with financial support from the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Research Foundation.

The competition is in two stages: in Stage 1, a scientific committee will screen written submissions and invite the best papers to be presented at a public event in Stockholm; and in Stage 2, a jury consisting of the scientific committee and two additional members will select the winners of the competition.

The three best papers receive money prizes of €4000, €2000 and €1000 respectively and will be submitted to JFE, free of charge. The winning authors will also be invited to attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony and their papers will be published in the ECGI Working Paper series.

The deadline for submission of papers is 1 September 2004.

Commenting on this new initiative, Marco Becht, ECGI’s Executive Director said “Corporate governance cases in Europe are a fertile ground for clinical papers. Europe has a broad range of corporate governance institutions that vary within and across countries, yet very few ‘clinical papers’ published in finance journals analyse this material.

“At the same time,” he said, “the detailed workings of European corporations are still not well known, raising the danger of simplification and misinterpretation in international comparisons of corporate governance.”

- ENDS -

For further information, contact::
• at ECGI: Professor Marco Becht, Executive Director, Tel: +32 (2) 650-4466
Fax: +32 (2) 650-2149, E-mail: mbecht@ecgi.org
• at SNS: Professor Hans Tson Söderström, Research Director, SNS-Center for Business and Policy Studies, tel: +46 8 50702554, fax +46 8 50702535, email: hts@sns.se
• at JFE: Professor G. William Schwert, Distinguished University Professor of Finance and Statistics, University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business, tel: +1 585 275-2470, Fax: +1 585 461-5475, E-Mail: schwert@schwert.ssb.rochester.edu

Notes for Editors

1. Background to the competition

The Journal of Financial Economics regularly publishes “clinical papers” to shed light on specific corporate governance issues and institutions. These papers often help in deepening understanding of such issues, compared to formal statistical approaches, delivering answers or suggesting interpretations in instances where econometric analysis fails. They can also help in stimulating theoretical work, in particular when institutions matter and their operation is not well known.

2. Definition of a clinical paper

The clinical paper method is set out in "Clinical papers and their role in the development of financial economics" by Michael C. Jensen, Eugene F. Fama, John B. Long, Jr. , Richard S. Ruback, G. William Schwert, Clifford W. Smith, Jr. and Jerold Warner, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 24, Issue 1, September 1989, Pages 3-6. A copy of this article can be downloaded from http://www.ecgi.de/clinical/documents/jensen_et_al.pdf. Examples of clinical papers can be found in past issues of the JFE, available from Elsevier

3. Geographical definition of European cases

The clinical papers must draw on cases/data from at least one Member State of the European Union, the New Member States of the Union, applicant countries, or another European country. For an exact definition of these, see the list of countries on the European Union website at http://europa.eu.int/abc/governments/index_en.htm

4. Eligibility of researchers

The competition is open to any researcher, whether working in Europe or elsewhere. The submission deadline is 1 September 2004. Papers should be submitted as a .pdf file by e-mail to clinical@ecgi.org.

5. The Scientific Committee

The Scientific Committee comprises: Professor Erik Berglöf (SITE, Stockholm School of Economics, CEPR and ECGI), Professor Luigi Zingales (GSB, University of Chicago, CEPR, NBER and ECGI) and Professor Julian Franks (London Business School, CEPR and ECGI).

6. The Stockholm jury

This comprises the Scientific Committee augmented by Professor Steven Kaplan (GSB, University of Chicago, NBER and ECGI) and Professor Hans Tson Söderström (Research Director, SNS-Center for Business and Policy Studies)

Winning papers will undergo a refereeing process at the JFE. Papers accepted by this process will be published in a special section of the JFE under the heading “ECGI Clinical Paper Competition”.

7. ECGI Working Papers

Since it was formed in January 2002, the ECGI has published to date some 42 Working Papers in its Finance and Law series. Further details can be found on ECGI’s website at http://www.ecgi.org/wp/index.php.

8. Journal of Financial Economics (JFE)

The Journal of Financial Economics began a new section containing applied papers and case studies in 1989. This section provides a high-quality professional outlet for scholarly studies of actual cases, events or practice. Such phenomena provide a rich source of data that illustrate or challenge accepted theory and lead to new insights about the world. These studies currently have few professional outlets, and with this section The Journal of Financial Economics takes a leading role in encouraging such work. Applications and case study papers are often different in form, scope and content and can be more conjectural. The papers deal with issues that are often less quantifiable, more descriptive and normative than usual. Papers that raise a new question or pose an old one in an innovative way and papers that test theories in specialized ways or document interesting phenomena which are likely to stimulate new research are emphasized. For more information, see the JFE website.

9. Swedish Center for Business and Policy Studies (SNS)

SNS is an independent network of leading decision makers from the private and public sectors who share a commitment to social and economic development in Sweden. Its aim is to improve the basis for rational decisions on major social and economic issues, by promoting social science research and stimulating public debate. For more information, see the SNS website http://www.sns.se/english/default.htm.

10. Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Research Foundation

The Foundation's purpose is the advancement of social science research mainly in economic history, economic geography, management science, economics and econometrics. It has a particular interest in supporting research concerning corporations, organisations, public administration and economic policy of importance for practical applications. There is a priority on supporting national and international research collaboration. Annual grants amount to a total of SEK 90m (€10m) corresponding to 300 full-time research working years.