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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
Agency Problems of Corporate Philanthropy
While corporate charitable contributions are frequent and often substantial, there is no clear evidence in the literature on whether these expenditures have positive effects on firm revenues or performance or on shareholder wealth. In our paper, Agency Problems of Corporate Philanthropy, which was recently accepted at the Review of Financial Studies, we use contributions of […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Corporate Social Responsibility, Empirical Research, Executive Compensation
Tagged Agency costs, Charitable spending, Corporate Social Responsibility, Executive Compensation, Philanthropy
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Banking Agencies Release Limited Volcker Rule Guidance
On June 10, 2014, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the “Banking Agencies”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) released substantially identical Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) addressing six topics regarding the implementation of […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, CFTC, Compliance and disclosure interpretation, FDIC, Federal Reserve, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, OCC, Proprietary trading, SEC, Securities regulation, Volcker Rule
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The Institutional Investor Stewardship Myth in a Dutch Context
The concept of institutional investor stewardship is based on the notion that in publicly listed companies responsibility for corporate governance is shared. The primary responsibility lies with the board, which oversees the actions of its management. Institutional investors in the company are assumed to play an important role in holding the board to account for […]
Click here to read the complete postDefining Dealers and Major Participants in the Cross-Border Context
Dealers and major participants play a crucial role in the derivatives market, a market that has been estimated to exceed $710 trillion worldwide, of which more than $14 trillion represents transactions in security-based swaps. In the United States, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and the SEC share responsibility for regulating the derivatives market. Out […]
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Posted in Derivatives, Financial Crisis, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Regulators Materials, Securities Regulation, Speeches & Testimony
Tagged Cross-border transactions, Derivatives, Dodd-Frank Act, Financial crisis, International governance, SEC, SEC rulemaking, Securities regulation, Swaps, Swaps entities, Systemic risk
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An Economist’s View of Market Evidence in Valuation and Bankruptcy Litigation
Courts often face many challenges when assessing the solvency of a company whether public or privately held. Examples of difficult valuation questions include: would a company with a market capitalization of several hundred million dollars possibly be insolvent? Or, would publicly-traded debt at or near par be conclusive evidence that the issuer is solvent at […]
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Posted in Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Court Cases, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Bankruptcy, Debt, Firm valuation, Liquidity, Market efficiency
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A Few Things Directors Should Know About the SEC
The SEC today has about 4,200 employees, located in Washington and 11 regional offices across the country, including one in San Francisco that is very ably led by Regional Director Jina Choi, who is here [June 23, 2014]. Many of you have likely had some contact with our Division of Corporation Finance, which, among other […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications, Regulators Materials, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Speeches & Testimony
Tagged Audit committee, Audits, Boards of Directors, Compliance & ethics, Corporate culture, Engagement, Financial reporting, Oversight, SEC, SEC enforcement, SEC investigations, Whistleblowers
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Recent Developments in Whistleblower Protections
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”) impose overlapping anti-retaliation provisions that generally prohibit retaliation against corporate “whistleblowers.” Recent headlines of whistleblower awards granted to individuals, especially under Dodd-Frank, underscore the fact that, even if a company’s […]
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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Compliance & ethics, Dodd-Frank Act, Misconduct, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation, SOX, Whistleblowers
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Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility
Linguists suggest that obligatory future-time-reference (FTR) in a language reduces the psychological importance of the future. Applying this to a corporate context, we theorize in this paper that companies with strong-FTR languages as their official/working language would be less future orientated and hence perform worse in future-oriented activities such as corporate social responsibility (CSR)—firms’ environmental, […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Corporate Social Responsibility, Empirical Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Corporate culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, International governance, Sustainability
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The Effects of Mandatory Transparency in Financial Market Design
Many financial markets have recently become subject to new regulations requiring transparency. In our recent NBER working paper, The Effects of Mandatory Transparency in Financial Market Design: Evidence from the Corporate Bond Market, we study how mandatory transparency affects trading in the corporate bond market. In July 2002, the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, Securities Regulation
Tagged Bonds, Corporate debt, Disclosure, Market reaction, Securities regulation, Transparency
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Supreme Court Upholds Fraud-On-The-Market Presumption in Halliburton
On June 23, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. Halliburton called into question the very foundation of a securities class action—the presumption of class-wide reliance. A unanimous Court answered the question today, and the presumption of reliance lives. The Court’s decision may, […]
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