Summary - TST 14

TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES


TST 14

Ana Cardoso de Matos y Álvaro Ferreira da Silva
Foreign capital and problems of agency: the Companhias Reunidas de Gás e Electricidade in Lisbon (1890-1920)

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Key words: Foreign investment; agency problems; energy; governance; Portugal.

[ Abstract ]

The importance of foreign capital in firms operating in infrastructure sectors (railways or energy, for instance), the geographic distance between the sources of this capital and the location of operations introduce problems of agency as a critical factor in the governance in these firms. Free-standing companies had been a usual response to these agency costs. In this paper, one tries to evaluate how other type of companies deal with this issue and how it affects not only formal governance structure and rules, but mostly informal governance practices.