Corporate governance provisions and firm ownership: Firm-level evidence from Eastern Europe

We study differences in the use of two corporate governance provisions – cumulative voting and proxy by mail voting – in a sample of about 220 firms located in four Eastern European countries. After controlling for other firm characteristics, we find that firms that have a large, minority blockholder are more likely to allow cumulative voting. We do not find any significant relationship between the use of these corporate governance provisions and foreign ownership. We conclude that the use of cumulative voting is associated with the presence of large, minority shareholders.