Taking stock of research on codes of good governance

This chapter reviews the literature of codes of good corporate governance, the set of best practice recommendations regarding the behavior and structure of board of directors of a firm. The review shows that a lot of research progress has been made in recent years, but there are still large gaps in knowledge. That is, although there is a good understanding of the diffusion of codes of good governance around the globe and of the different determinants of this diffusion, there is need for more research on the specific contents of the codes, and of whether codes of good governance are an appropriate tool to improve corporate governance practices.