Improving corporate ethics and public policy through objective, empirical research and analysis.
CCEG to Cosponsor Event with Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance — May 3, 2011
On May 3, 2011, the CCEG will cosponsor a seminar with the University of Delaware's John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. The event will address the role of boards of directors in overseeing compliance and ethics, particularly within financial institutions. This opportunity provides a valuable platform for discussion on this important topic, and builds upon the findings in CCEG's 2010 conference report, Directors as Guardians of Compliance and Ethics Within the Corporate Citadel: What the Policy Community Should Know.
Conference Proceedings
CCEG Holds Policy Symposium Featuring the Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) — Mar. 28, 2011
On March 28, 2011, CCEG held a Policy Symposium luncheon with featured speaker, Phil Angelides, Chairman of the FCIC. During the symposium, titled "Lessons Learned from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission," Angelides discussed his experience on the Commission's 10-member bipartisan panel as well as the Commission's findings relating to the causes of the nation's financial and economic crisis. The event was co-hosted by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and the UCLA-RAND Center for Law and Public Policy.
Read More at fcic.gov
National Association of Corporate Directors Event Features CCEG Director as Moderator — Mar. 2, 2011
Michael Greenberg, director of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance, moderated the discussion at the NACD Three Rivers Chapter, Brave New World: Transformation of Corporate Governance or An Era of Regulatory Reform on March 2. The event featured RAND trustee, James E. Rohr, chairman and CEO of PNC Financial services, and director of Blackrock, EQT, ATI, and International Monetary Conference.
Read More at nacd3r.affiniscape.com
CCEG Study Cited Extensively by SEC — Jan. 31, 2011
The January 2011 SEC report, "Study on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers," cites heavily from the CCEG publication, Investor and Industry Perspectives on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers. Pages 96-99 of the new report summarize the RAND study findings in support of the argument that there exists "retail investor confusion" regarding roles and obligations of investment advisers and broker-dealers.
Read the Report at sec.gov Full Document
CCEG Director Provides Remarks to the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association — Dec. 14, 2010
Michael Greenberg, director of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance, addressed the December meeting of the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association. His speech, "Corporate Governance and Regulation: Issues and Some Thoughts Concerning Venture Capital," focused on a number of current legislative issues of interest to those involved in venture capital. In particular, Greenberg remarked on the impact of recent policy changes under both the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
CCEG Hosts Semi-Annual Advisory Board Dinner and Meeting — Dec. 2-3, 2010
The advisory board dinner of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance took place on December 2, 2010 at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, and featured keynote speaker Robert Hunter, RAND senior advisor and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO. The advisory board meeting commenced the following morning at RAND's Pentagon City offices. The CCEG thanks its advisory board members for their participation at the meeting and throughout the year.
The Washington Post Cites CCEG Study — Nov. 27, 2010
The Washington Post's article, "Whose investment advice can you trust?," references the CCEG's oft-cited publication, "Investor and Industry Perspectives on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers." The article highlights the study's finding that the average investor fails to understand the key distinctions between broker-dealers and registered investment advisers.
Read More at washingtonpost.com
Center Director to Chair Southwest Litigation Summit — May 2-4, 2010
Michael Greenberg, Director of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance, chaired the Southwest Litigation Summit 2010 on May 2-4 in Phoenix, Arizona. The event served as a forum for in-house litigators to strategize on the best practices related to augmented corporate defense and representation.
Read More at me-uk.com
SEC Chair Quotes Center Research — Jun. 18, 2009
Mary Schapiro, SEC Chairwoman and former member of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance Advisory Board, cited the Center's study, "Investor and Industry Perspectives on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers," in her recent address to the New York Financial Writers' Association.
Read the Speech at mondovisione.com
Full Document
Research Brief
Preventing and Detecting Corporate Misdeeds: Ethics and Compliance Officers Offer Advice for Policymakers — Apr. 9, 2009
Improvements in corporate compliance, ethics, and oversight have been a significant policy goal for the U.S. government at least since the enactment of the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines in 1991 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Notwithstanding these earlier government initiatives, the collapse of financial markets in late 2008 has invited renewed questions about the governance, compliance, and ethics practices of firms throughout the U.S. economy. On March 5, 2009, RAND convened a conference in Washington, D.C., on the role and perspectives of corporate chief ethics and compliance officers (CECOs) in supporting organizations in the detection and prevention of corporate misdeeds. The conference brought together leaders from among ethics and compliance officers in the corporate community, as well as stakeholders in the nonprofit sector, academia, and government. Discussions focused on the challenges facing corporate ethics and compliance programs as a first line of defense against malfeasance and misbehavior; on the role of CECOs as champions for implementation in their companies; and on potential steps that might be taken by government to empower CECOs and, by extension, the corporate ethics and compliance programs that they oversee.
Full Document
"The Unintended Effects of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002" was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for "Corporate Governance & Accounting" and "Corporate Governance & Law" — Feb. 17, 2009
The auditing profession came under intense scrutiny following the collapse of Enron and several other leading firms. Legislators responded swiftly with the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, widely considered the most comprehensive economic regulation since the New Deal. An important strand in the accounting literature, led in part by authors such as DeFond & Francis (2005) and Baker (2008) suggests the law may produce serious unintended harmful consequences. This has produced a call for further research to evaluate the law's impact upon firms. This paper contributes to this literature in several ways. First, it conducts a comprehensive analysis of multiple literatures to formulate key hypotheses. Second, the strength of these hypotheses is evaluated on a random sample of Fortune 500 CEOs (n = 206), the first scholarly attempt to evaluate managerial perception of the law. The survey results generally support our hypotheses, and this knowledge is intended to improve the regulatory development process in the future. As this is not a cost: benefit analysis, no effort was made to evaluate the potential benefits of the law, and no conclusions are drawn regarding the law's net effect(s).
SSRN Web Site
President-elect Obama chooses Mary Schapiro, Advisory Board Member, to lead the SEC — Dec. 18, 2008
President-elect Obama has chosen Mary Schapiro, Advisory Board Member to the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance (CCEG), to lead the SEC. We are encouraged that the SEC will have the benefit of her outstanding leadership. Ms. Schapiro will join Timothy Geithner, a member of the RAND Board of Trustees and nominee as Treasury Secretary, in steering the country toward economic recovery and renewed confidence in our financial markets. While we regret Ms. Schapiro will no longer be available to advise RAND, we wish her the best of luck and are committed to providing her with the unbiased, objective information she will need to be successful in her new position.
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