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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
How to Fire an Accused CEO: Moonves Departs CBS
In a climate where Weinstein clauses are shaping M&A and the latest Kevin Spacey feature nets less than $1,000 on opening weekend, many shareholders and activists were puzzled by the persistence of Leslie Moonves. CBS’s former president, CEO and chairman held onto his position for over six weeks despite a New Yorker article outlining accusations […]
Click here to read the complete postThe Board’s Role in Confronting Crisis
A corporate crisis in today’s world accelerates more quickly with a larger impact than ever before. The 24-hour news cycle and prevalence of social media contribute to the risk of destabilization. A crisis can be the result of a number of different types of incidents and developments and take on many forms. For example: Reports […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board oversight, Boards of Directors, Engagement, Management, Risk, Risk management, Risk oversight
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The Effects of Internal Board Networks: Evidence from Closed-End Funds
Several recent studies document the importance of social networks in corporate governance. Most of this research focuses on networks between board members and the CEO, or between directors and outside parties. My study, The Effects of Internal Board Networks: Evidence from Closed-End Funds, recently published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, is the first […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors
Tagged Board independence, Board monitoring, Board oversight, Boards of Directors, Director compensation, Disclosure, Oversight, Social networks
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The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: Lessons Learned
Introduction The financial crisis was ignited exactly ten years ago: on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. That same day, Bank of America announced its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. On September 16, the Federal Reserve bailed out AIG. On September 17, the markets were in free-fall. On September 18, Secretary Paulson and Chairman […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Banking & Financial Institutions, Boards of Directors, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, Boards of Directors, Executive Compensation, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Risk management, Securities regulation, Systemic risk
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Weekly Roundup: September 28–October 4, 2018
How Blockchain will Disrupt Corporate Organizations Posted by Mark Fenwick (Kyushu University), Wulf A. Kaal (University of St. Thomas), and Erik P. M. Vermeulen (Tilburg University), on Friday, September 28, 2018 Tags: Blockchain, Contracts, Corporate forms, Cryptocurrency, Decentralization, Financial technology, Innovation Corporate Governance Update: Shareholder Activism Is the Next Phase of #MeToo Posted by David A. Katz and Laura A. McIntosh, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen […]
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Tagged Weekly Roundup
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No Long-Term Value From Activist Attacks
An important new study by Ed deHaan, David Larcker and Charles McClure, Long-Term Economic Consequences of Hedge Fund Activist Interventions, has found that on a value weighted basis, long-term returns are “insignificantly different from zero.” And, nearly all of the positive long-term returns are concentrated in companies that are acquired in the two-year period following the […]
Click here to read the complete post2018 Relative TSR Prevalence and Design of S&P 500 Companies
Over the last several years as compensation committees and executives strive to align pay with shareholder returns, they have increasingly turned to market-based performance measures such as relative total shareholder return (RTSR) . Traditionally, RTSR was used primarily by Energy and Utilities companies, largely because these companies’ stock prices tend to be closely correlated, so […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Equity-based compensation, Executive Compensation, Firm performance, Incentives, Pay for performance, Peer groups, Say on pay, TSR
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Micro(structure) before Macro?
In our article, Micro(structure) before Macro? The Predictive Power of Aggregate Illiquidity for Stock Returns and Economic Activity (Journal of Financial Economics, 2018, 130 (1), pp. 48-73), we provide new, relatively comprehensive empirical evidence concerning the predictive content of aggregate illiquidity for stock returns and macroeconomic activity. Liquidity conditions in securities markets fluctuate over time, […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research
Tagged Equity securities, Forecasting, Liquidity, Macroeconomics, Market efficiency, Stock returns
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UN Sustainable Development Goals—The Leading ESG Framework for Large Companies
Davis Polk’s series on environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) developments continues with this article on the United Nations (“UN”) Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), 17 ESG goals which aim to create, by 2030, a “world free of poverty, hunger, disease and want, where all life can thrive.” Davis Polk’s series began with articles earlier this summer […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Investors, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Corporate Social Responsibility, Disclosure, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Human rights, Institutional Investors, International governance, Sustainability, United Nations
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Are Active Mutual Funds More Active Owners than Index Funds?
Recent literature has taken the view that the stewardship decisions of actively managed investment funds are generally superior to those of index funds. Indeed, one recent article believes that index fund stewardship is so inferior that index fund managers should be precluded from voting (Lund 2018). In an ongoing research project, which builds on the […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Corporate Elections & Voting, Empirical Research, HLS Research, Institutional Investors
Tagged Agency costs, Disclosure, Fund managers, Fund performance, Incentives, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Mutual funds, Ownership, Shareholder activism, Shareholder value, Shareholder voting, Stewardship
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