Skip to main content

Penn Law LLMs contribute to research featured in IMF report

November 21, 2016

Research by Wharton professor Mauro Guillén was included in the latest IMF Global Financial Stability Report.
Research by Wharton professor Mauro Guillén was included in the latest IMF Global Financial Stability Report.
More than 50 LLM students from Penn Law played a critical role in research by Wharton School professor Mauro Guillén that was part of a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report issued in October.

More than 50 LLM students from Penn Law played a critical role in research by Wharton School professor Mauro Guillén that was part of a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report issued in October.

Guillén is the Anthony L. Davis Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at Penn and the Dr. Felix Zandman Endowed Professor of International Management at the Wharton School. He holds a secondary appointment as Professor of Sociology in Penn’s Department of Sociology and is also the faculty director of the Wharton Business and Law Certificate program for Penn Law’s LLM students.

Twice a year, the IMF issues a Global Financial Stability Report, which assesses the global financial system and global markets.

“It’s a very important report because it gives a sense as to — from the standpoint of the IMF — whether they believe that there might be some big troubles on the horizon in some parts of the world,” said Guillén.

The latest report contains a chapter on the role of corporate governance in financial stability, with a particular emphasis on the protection of minority shareholders. The chapter extensively uses data from a paper by Guillén and INSEAD’s Laurence Capron titled “State Capacity, Minority Shareholder Protections, and Stock Market Development,” which was published in Administrative Science Quarterly.

In the paper, Guillén and Capron identified ten specific legal provisions that are supposed to protect the rights of minority shareholders. By examining legal texts, they determined if these provisions to protect minority shareholders were present in the national legislation of 78 countries between the 1970 and 2012.

In order to examine so many legal texts over such a large span of time and in so many languages, Guillén hired 52 Penn Law LLM students from the classes of 2011, 2012, and 2013 to help analyze the data over the course of between three and four years.

Because LLM students are lawyers in their home countries who have come to Penn Law for a year of advanced legal study, Guillen utilized the students’ expertise by having them look at legislation and code whether these provisions were present or not within each year.

“It was a massive undertaking,” said Guillen. During the course of the research, he met with the LLM students on a regular basis, and noted that it was a pleasure to work with them.

“They come here and they only have a year,” he said. “They’re so eager to learn and make the most of their time here on campus.”

The LLM program at Penn Law is a one-year, full-time course of study for lawyers whose first degree in law is from outside the United States. Students design their own curriculum, which allows them to explore their particular areas of interest, take classes alongside upper-level JD students, and gain an enhanced understanding of American law.