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Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Global Institutional Investors on the IFRS Foundation’s Sustainability Standards
Executive summary The IFRS® Foundation’s September 2020 consultation on sustainability reporting proposes setting up a Sustainability Standards Board (SSB) to set standards and drive global consistency. We reviewed the comment letters of a selection of 20 of the largest and most influential investor respondents to the Consultation—18 global institutional investors with close to $24 trillion […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Climate change, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Materiality, Surveys, Sustainability
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Board Refreshment
Every year, as part of PwC’s Annual Corporate Directors Survey, we ask directors to evaluate the performance of their peers, and whether any of the members of their board should be replaced. The share of respondents who say one or more of their fellow directors should go has been rising, and in 2020 it reached […]
Click here to read the complete postThe Long-Term Effects of Short Selling and Negative Activism
First, the punch line of our new empirical study: activist short selling, which we call “negative activism,” has real and lasting long-term effects. On average, the share prices of targeted companies fall by more than 20% after four years. Accounting returns plummet. Targets are more likely to be sued and investigated by regulators. The numbers […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Institutional Investors, Mergers & Acquisitions
Tagged GameStop, Hedge funds, Institutional Investors, Long-Term value, Shareholder activism, Short sales, Short-termism
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Weekly Roundup: March 19–25, 2021
Equality Metrics Posted by Veronica Root Martinez (Notre Dame) and Gina-Gail Fletcher (Duke University), on Friday, March 19, 2021 Tags: Corporate Social Responsibility, Disclosure, Diversity, ESG, Institutional Investors, Securities regulation, Shareholder activism SEC Announces It Will Aggressively Scrutinize Issuers’ Climate Change Disclosure Posted by Marc E. Elovitz, Brian T. Daly, and Tarik M. Shah, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, on Friday, March 19, 2021 […]
Click here to read the complete postRemarks by Commissioner Crenshaw at Asset Management Advisory Committee Meeting
Good morning. As always, thank you to the Committee for your time, dedication, and thoughtfulness on important asset management issues that affect investors and market integrity. Thank you also to the staff of the Division of Investment Management. I commend you for continuing your work on issues related to Environmental, Sustainability, Governance (ESG); private securities; […]
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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, Climate change, Disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Proxy voting, SEC, Securities regulation, Shareholder voting, Sustainability
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The Distribution of Voting Rights to Shareholders
Our new paper, The Distribution of Voting Rights to Shareholders, is the first comprehensive study of the distribution of voting rights to shareholders. Using over 100,000 distributions of voting rights to shareholders, we find a wide array of evidence that firms and stock exchanges change when they notify investors of the voting record date based […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting
Tagged Boards of Directors, Market reaction, Proxy voting, Shareholder meetings, Shareholder rights, Shareholder voting
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Behavioral Psychology Might Explain What’s Holding Boards Back
Introduction The mythology of corporate boards goes something like this: put a group of high-achieving, experienced, strategic-minded, and diverse individuals in a room together. Add commitment and a lot of hard work. What you get is a top-notch board with a healthy culture and effective oversight. In practice, no boardroom culture is perfect. Every director […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, ESG, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Behavioral finance, Board composition, Board dynamics, Board performance, Boards of Directors, Decision-making, Diversity, ESG, Risk assessment
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Protests from Within: Engaging with Employee Activists
We recently published a paper on SSRN, Protests from Within: Engaging with Employee Activists, that examines the rise of employee activism and its implications on corporate mission, management, and investment. In recent years, we have seen a growing trend of stakeholder issues becoming prominent in discussions of corporate governance. This phenomenon is broadly known as […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, ESG
Tagged Corporate culture, Corporate purpose, Corporate Social Responsibility, Diversity, ESG, Management, Stakeholders
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A SPAC-tacular Distraction Compelling Opportunities in “Other” Event-Driven Investments
The combination of record-level SPAC issuance and a flood of non-SPAC M&A has created a supply-demand imbalance in the event-driven asset class. With SPACs garnering most of the limelight, we believe investors are missing an excellent opportunity to deploy capital into “other” event-driven investments, most prominently merger arbitrage. A Wild Year It’s certainly been an […]
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Posted in International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Antitrust, Arbitrage, Capital formation, China, International governance, IPOs, Mergers & acquisitions, SPACs
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Activist Shareholder Proposals and HCM Disclosures in 2021
Since 2015, pay gap disclosure has been front and center on the activist shareholder proposal landscape from an employment and workforce perspective. Following closely on the heels of tragic events of last summer and the significant advancement of the Black Lives Matter movement, activist shareholder groups have pivoted away from proposals requiring disclosures of pay […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Executive Compensation, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Compensation disclosure, Compensation ratios, ESG, Executive Compensation, Human capital, Institutional Investors, Shareholder activism, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder voting
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