-
Supported By:
Subscribe or Follow
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
The Economics of Deferral and Clawback Requirements
The 2007-08 financial crisis put compensation practices in the financial sector on the agenda of financial regulation. On a supra-national level, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) adopted its Principles for Sound Compensation Practices in 2009 “to reduce incentives towards excessive risk taking that may arise from the structure of compensation schemes.” In particular, short-term oriented […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Executive Compensation, Financial Regulation
Tagged Bonuses, Clawbacks, Executive Compensation, Financial regulation, Risk, Risk-taking, Short-termism
Comments Off on The Economics of Deferral and Clawback Requirements
2021 Annual Corporate Directors Survey
The corporate world is never static, but the first years of this decade have presented an unusual compilation of challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a nearly unprecedented public health emergency, with lasting global implications. The stock markets have reached record highs, interest rates have fallen to record lows, and unemployment figures skyrocketed before labor […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, ESG, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board composition, Board dynamics, Board performance, Board turnover, Boards of Directors, Diversity, ESG, Surveys
Comments Off on 2021 Annual Corporate Directors Survey
The World Targets Change
About this Study In 2021, ESG investing has grown to $35+ trillion—over a third of the world’s professionally managed assets. ESG is now well and truly mainstream across the globe. Soon ESG investing will be investing, or at the very least a fundamental component of all investing. Our latest research uncovers the views of more […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, Climate change, Engagement, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Stewardship, Surveys, Sustainability
Comments Off on The World Targets Change
Stock Investors’ Returns are Exaggerated
Long-run buy-and-hold stock market returns with dividend reinvestment (“total shareholder returns” or “TSR”) are significantly higher than risk-free returns, leading to an annual equity risk premium of about 6%. Stocks are thus pitched as a key component of wealth accumulation strategies and have become an important savings vehicle for American families. The high equity premium […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, HLS Research
Tagged Capital markets, Market conditions, Shareholder value, Stock returns, TSR
Comments Off on Stock Investors’ Returns are Exaggerated
Regulated Funds
On Sept. 29, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Rule 14Ad‑1 and amendments to Form N-PX (collectively, “Proposal”) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (“1940 Act”), that, if adopted, would require more comprehensive information from mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and certain other investment companies registered under the 1940 Act that currently […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Asset management, Disclosure, Exchange-traded funds, Form N-PX, Institutional Investors, Mutual funds, Rule 14Ad‑1, SEC, Securities regulation, Shareholder voting
Comments Off on Regulated Funds
How GPs Can Compete for Capital Through ESG
Executive Summary The Pickering Energy Partners ESG Consulting team ran an analysis of the 100 private equity firms most active in Energy deals over the last 5 years. In analyzing those 100 firms and scoring them on their ESG disclosure, we saw that the competitive bell-curve based on disclosure completeness displays a positive skew. This […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, ESG, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Climate change, Engagement, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Sustainability
Comments Off on How GPs Can Compete for Capital Through ESG
2022 Glass Lewis Policy Guidelines: United States
Summary of Changes for 2022 Glass Lewis evaluates these guidelines on an ongoing basis and formally updates them on an annual basis. This year we’ve made noteworthy revisions in the following areas, which are summarized below but discussed in greater detail in the relevant section of this document: Board Gender Diversity We have expanded our […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Executive Compensation, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board composition, Boards of Directors, Diversity, Dual-class stock, ESG, Executive Compensation, Incentives, Institutional Investors, Proxy advisors, Proxy voting, Shareholder voting, SPACs
Comments Off on 2022 Glass Lewis Policy Guidelines: United States
ESG Global Study 2021
Global investors strongly prefer an active approach to ESG. Threequarters use active funds to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues — more than double the proportion using passive funds and trackers. Rather than investing in funds that merely screen out unethical sectors, investors want managers to identify and manage ESG risks and opportunities through […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Risk, Sustainability, Transparency
Comments Off on ESG Global Study 2021
BlackRock’s Move to Expand Proxy Voting Choice Creates Unknowns
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, announced on October 7, 2021 that it will start giving certain of its institutional index equity clients the ability to instruct BlackRock how those clients would like their votes to be cast at shareholder meetings of companies in BlackRock’s index funds. This move is savvy. BlackRock can look like […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, BlackRock, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Proxy voting, Securities lending, Shareholder voting, Short sales
Comments Off on BlackRock’s Move to Expand Proxy Voting Choice Creates Unknowns
SEC Dramatically Changes the Rules for Proxy Contests
On November 17, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new Rule 14a-19 and amendments to existing rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require the use of “universal” proxy cards in all nonexempt director election contests at publicly traded companies in the U.S. The new “Universal Proxy Rules” contain only […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Boards of Directors, Director nominations, Institutional Investors, Proxy voting, SEC, SEC rulemaking, Securities regulation, Shareholder nominations, Shareholder voting, Universal proxy ballots
Comments Off on SEC Dramatically Changes the Rules for Proxy Contests