Different Corporate Governance mechanisms have been suggested to minimize
agency problems between managers and shareholders, and between controlling
and minority shareholders. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the corporate
governance mechanisms result in greater efficiency for Brazilian stock companies in
the electricity sector, in 2007-2009. The hypothesis to be verified is that the lower the
voting concentration and the dependence of the council, and the greater the cash
flow concentration, the greater the performance of the company will be. The analyzed
sample involved thirty-three companies, fourteen being classified into one of the levels
of CG (Level 1, Level 2 or New Market) and the remainder being members of the
traditional market. To measure the efficiency of the companies, the non-parametric
DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method was used, and to relate the efficiency with
the governance variables, we adopted regression analysis of panel data. The results
demonstrated that the use of CG mechanisms positively influences business efficiency,
but not in the expected magnitude. It was found that the cash flow concentration is
positively related to the efficiency of firms, supporting the governance literature. For
future work, the use of other input and output variables is suggested.
