2020 GCGC CONFERENCE: 

24 Hour Global Webinar 

The COVID-19 Crisis and Its Aftermath: Corporate Governance Implications and Policy Challenges


GLOBAL  CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COLLOQUIUM (GCGC)

24 hour global webinar  |  16 April 2020

About the event


GCGC 2020 was scheduled to take place at Yale University, but the programme was cancelled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 April 2020, ECGI and GCGC hosted a 24 hour global webinar, convening scholars, practitioners and policymakers with the aim of sharing evidence-based insights for the common good. The event consisted of ten 2-hour sessions commencing at 9:00am in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, moving through Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China, Israel, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the USA, to finish in Stanford University, California. The event emphasized regional challenges and responses to the pandemic's health and economic dimensions, offering a comparative global perspective.

The opening session, hosted in Australia, highlighted how COVID-19 diverges from the 2008 financial crisis by being primarily a supply shock rather than a demand disruption. Panelists discussed Australia's shift in foreign investment rules to safeguard sovereignty while maintaining global engagement. They also highlighted the tension between directors’ duties and broader stakeholder considerations, accelerated by the pandemic. For instance, Australian banks served as community backstops, prioritizing tenant and landlord relief over shareholder interests—a shift from conventional profit-maximizing roles. 

In Asia, sessions focused on business continuity and CSR. In Japan, where strict government imposed lockdowns are historically avoided, firms voluntarily closed operations or implemented remote work policies. This demonstrated a CSR-driven mitigation of externalities like virus spread, though directors faced legal and ethical uncertainties if their decisions were challenged. Korean family owned conglomerates (chaebols) took advantage of stock price declines to facilitate intergenerational wealth transfers via stock gifting, raising ethical questions about tax burdens and minority shareholder interests. 

Israel's session underscored the vulnerabilities of start-ups, particularly as foreign investors withdrew, creating liquidity crises. The Israeli government responded with targeted interventions, such as incentivizing local institutional investors to co-invest alongside venture capital funds. This was contrasted with Germany’s €2 billion start-up fund, which co financed rounds with private investors, avoiding direct subsidies. 

The European sessions examined financial stability and innovative recovery mechanisms. Germany proposed an equity-like funding model for SMEs, suggesting a tax surcharge repayment system to reduce leverage without increasing debt. This mechanism, discussed as part of a European Pandemic Equity Fund (EPEF), aimed to balance risks and returns across EU member states. Similarly, Sweden's relatively soft lockdown approach was explored for maintaining economic resilience while relying on high public trust to ensure compliance. 

The U.S. sessions delved into systemic governance vulnerabilities exposed by the crisis. Bankruptcy laws, particularly under Chapter 11, were critiqued for their inefficiency in handling surges in filings, with recommendations for streamlined "cookie cutter" bankruptcy models. Insider trading also emerged as a critical concern, with discussions on pandemic-induced opportunities for illegal trades by both corporate insiders and politicians. Proposals to enhance disclosure rules and restrict trading activities during crises highlighted the need for tighter regulatory oversight. 

A common thread across sessions was the increasing role of state intervention in corporate governance. In Asia, state ownership and muted markets for corporate control were presented as hallmarks of resilience, while in the U.S. and Europe, concerns about overreach and market distortions were debated.


It was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic had dire economic consequences, and collective thought was applied to what policies could better ensure societies’ resilience and their quick and dynamic recovery once the crisis ended. Corporate governance scholars helped to devise sound and effective policies for this purpose. This global webinar convened scholars, practitioners and policymakers with the aim of sharing evidence-based insights for the common good.

Topics included, but were not limited to:

·         Corporate social responsibility in war-like times

·         Corporate governance digitalization

·         The role of institutional investors and stewardship

·         Takeover defences and M&A trends

·         Bond markets and bankruptcy 

·         Corporate purpose in times of crisis

·         The governance implications of emergency laws and government bailouts

·         Securities regulation (disclosure, short-selling bans, etc.)

·         ESG and Impact investing 

·         Systemic risk and financial stability following exogenous shocks

A collection of related articles by ECGI research members is available here



Global webinar report 2020


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