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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 Christine Davine
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Byron Georgiou
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino Jonathan Watkins
- Steven J. Williams
HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Behavioral Biases of Analysts and Investors
Financial analysts and stock market investors alike are subject to behavioral biases. Objective analyst forecasts can potentially help correct investor misperceptions. On the other hand, biased forecasts can reinforce or incite investor misperceptions. Furthermore, data on analyst behavior provide a rich window of insight into the nature of psychological bias among an important and incentivized […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research
Tagged Analyst forecasts, Analysts, Behavioral finance, Decision-making, Earnings announcements, Financial reporting, Forecasting, Investor horizons
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SEC Enforcement Actions Against Companies for Misleading COVID-19 Claims
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) filed enforcement actions on May 14, 2020, against two unrelated companies, Turbo Global Partners, Inc. (“Turbo”) and Applied BioSciences Corp. (“APPB”). The SEC charged both companies with securities fraud based on alleged materially misleading statements that the companies were offering and shipping products to combat the coronavirus […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged COVID-19, Disclosure, SEC, SEC enforcement, Securities enforcement, Securities fraud
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Firm-Level Climate Change Exposure
Climate change has started to significantly affect a large number of firms in the economy. A challenge for investors, regulators, and policy makers lies in the difficulty to properly quantify firm-level exposure to climate change, with respect to the associated risks but also in terms of the opportunities that come with it. Complications stem from […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, ESG
Tagged Climate change, Earnings announcements, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Firm performance, Risk, Risk assessment, Shocks, Sustainability
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Seventh Circuit Holds That Price Impact Must Be Decided at the Class Certification Stage
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has just issued a decision of special interest to defendants in securities class actions under Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act. The Court vacated the district court’s certification of a class in a lawsuit against Allstate, holding that the district court failed to consider defendants’ evidence that the misrepresentations […]
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Posted in Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Basic, Class actions, Exchange Act, Fraud-on-the-Market, Halliburton, Market efficiency, Market reaction, Section 10(b), Securities litigation, Securities regulation, Shareholder suits, Shareholder value
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Our Approach to Sustainability
This past January, BlackRock wrote to clients about how we are making sustainability central to the way we invest, manage risk, and execute our stewardship responsibilities. This commitment is based on our conviction that climate risk is investment risk and that sustainability-integrated portfolios, and climate-integrated portfolios in particular, can produce better long-term, risk-adjusted returns. Our efforts around […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Climate change, COVID-19, Diversity, Engagement, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Institutional voting, Proxy season, Proxy voting, Shareholder activism, Transparency
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The Real Effects of Modern Information Technologies
Modern information technologies have greatly facilitated timely dissemination of information to a broad base of investors at low costs. In our paper entitled The Real Effects of Modern Information Technologies, we exploit the staggered implementation of the EDGAR system from 1993 to 1996 as a shock to information dissemination technologies to examine their effects on […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Empirical Research, Securities Regulation
Tagged Disclosure, EDGAR, Firm performance, Information environment, Innovation, Managerial style, Profitability, Securities regulation, Shocks
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Supreme Court Holds That CFPB’s Structure Is Unconstitutional
On June 29, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, finally resolving the question that has dogged the new agency since its inception: Is the leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) constitutional? Writing for a 5-4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that […]
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Posted in Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, CFPB, Consumer protection, Dodd-Frank Act, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Securities regulation, Supreme Court
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Going Dark: SEC Proposes Amendments to Form 13F
The SEC has proposed an amendment to Form 13F that would exempt from filing all money managers holding less than $3.5 billion of “13(f) securities.” The threshold would apply without regard to the fund’s overall size or total assets under management. Increasing the threshold to $3.5 billion from the current cut-off of $100 million would slash the […]
Click here to read the complete postNavigating Insolvency Risk in COVID-19 Distressed Companies
As COVID-19 related economic disruptions place unprecedented stress on cash flows, the risk of insolvency is a new and growing concern for many businesses. Against the backdrop of a decades-long growth in corporate debt, boards of directors are making decisions that have the potential for pitting the interests of creditors against the interests of equity […]
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Posted in Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Boards of Directors, Financial Crisis, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Bankruptcy, Board oversight, Boards of Directors, COVID-19, Director liability, Distressed companies, Fiduciary duties, Liability standards, State law
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Comment Letter on Proposed Regulation of ESG Standards in ERISA Plans
To Whom It May Concern: We are writing in opposition to proposed rule RIN 1210-AB95. We believe the rule is not only unnecessary, but Is based on a woefully incorrect understanding of the current state of investing knowledge and theory, Endangers the retirement security of Americans rather than protects it, Is Internally inconsistent, Applies an […]
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