Update on Corporate Political Activity

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:27:40 +0000

Posted by John Coates, Harvard Law School, on Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Editor's Note:

John Coates is the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School. This post relates to research by Professor Coates discussed on the Forum here, as well as a recent post on a Manhattan Institute Legal Policy Report, discussed here. Work from the Program on Corporate Governance about corporate political spending includes Corporate Political Speech: Who Decides? by Lucian Bebchuk and Robert Jackson, discussed on the Forum here. A committee of law professors co-chaired by Bebchuk and Jackson submitted a rulemaking petition to the SEC concerning corporate political spending; that petition is discussed here.

Corporate politics continue to generate controversy. Recent items of note include (1) the US Supreme Court’s decision to expand the reach of Citizens United in Western Tradition Partnership; (2) the continued increase in the number of and support for shareholder proposals calling for disclosure of corporate political activity; and (3) a recent “study” sponsored by the conservative Manhattan Institute (and described on the Forum here) purporting to find that – as the Wall Street Journal put it – “politics spending pays” – contrary to my own research, which finds that large public companies that were politically active before Citizens United experience a decline in their industry-adjusted market value after the decision. Each of these developments is discussed briefly below.

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The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

Update on Corporate Political Activity