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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
Activist Shareholders in the US: A Changing Landscape
Shareholder activism in the U.S. has increased significantly over the past several years, with activist campaigns increasingly targeting well-known, larger market capitalization companies, such as Apple, Hess, Procter & Gamble and Sony. In 2013, the number, nature and degree of success of these campaigns has garnered the attention of boards of directors, shareholders and the […]
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Posted in Institutional Investors, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Institutional Investors, Long-Term value, Management, Shareholder activism, Short-termism, Target firms
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The Sustainability Business Case
While much has been published on the business case for sustainability during the last decade, businesses have been slow to adopt the green innovation and sustainability agenda. Reasons include a lack of consistency in the indicators employed by analysts, and a failure to effectively incorporate financial value drivers into the equation. This article defines a […]
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Posted in Corporate Social Responsibility, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Corporate Social Responsibility, Cost-benefit analysis, Innovation, Long-Term value, Sustainability, The Conference Board
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The Dark Side of Analyst Coverage
In our paper, The Dark Side of Analyst Coverage: The Case of Innovation, forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics, we examine the effect of analyst coverage on firm innovation and test two competing hypotheses. We find that firms covered by a larger number of analysts generate fewer patents and patents with lower impact. To […]
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Posted in Academic Research
Tagged Analysts, Innovation, Long-Term value, Management, Patents, Short-termism, Stock analysts
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Appellate Court: Madoff Trustee Lacks Authority to Go After Banks
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held today that the trustee for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) lacks authority to pursue common-law claims for damages suffered by Madoff’s customers. Based on that ruling, the Court affirmed the dismissal of a variety of damages claims against JPMorgan, HSBC and other banks relating […]
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Posted in Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged Bankruptcy, Bernard Madoff, Debtor-creditor law, Picard v. JPMorgan, U.S. federal courts
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Why High Leverage is Optimal for Banks
In our paper, Why High Leverage is Optimal for Banks, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we focus on banks’ role as producers of liquid financial claims. Our model assumes uncertainty and excludes agency problems, deposit insurance, taxes, and other distortions that would lead banks to adopt levered capital structures. We show that, […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Banking & Financial Institutions
Tagged Banks, Capital requirements, Capital structure, Debt-equity ratio, Leverage, Liquidity, Systemic risk
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The Costs of “Too Big To Fail”
Editor’s Note: Mark Roe is the David Berg Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches bankruptcy and corporate law. This post is Professor Roe’s most recent op-ed written for the international association of newspapers Project Syndicate, which can be found here. The idea that some banks are “too big to fail” has […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Financial Regulation, HLS Research, Op-Eds & Opinions
Tagged Bank debt, Bankruptcy, Banks, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Too big to fail
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Bebchuk, Cohen, and Wang Win the 2013 IRRCi Academic Award for “Learning and the Disappearing Association between Governance and Returns”
In an award ceremony held in New York City on Tuesday, the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) announced the winners of its the 2013 prize competition. The academic award, coming with a $10,000 award prize, went to HLS professor Lucian Bebchuk, HLS Senior Fellow and Tel-Aviv University Professor Alma Cohen, and HBS professor Charles […]
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Posted in Academic Research, HLS Research, Program News & Events
Tagged Analyst forecasts, Behavioral finance, Corporate governance, Earnings announcements, Entrenchment, Governance indices, Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute, Learning, Market efficiency, Shareholder rights, Stock analysts
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Court of Chancery Upholds Forum-Selection Bylaws Under the DGCL
The Court of Chancery has rejected statutory and contractual challenges to forum-selection bylaws adopted unilaterally by the boards of directors of Chevron Corporation and FedEx Corporation. In an opinion deciding motions for partial judgment on the pleadings in Boilermakers Local 154 Retirement Fund, et al. v. Chevron Corp., et al., C.A. No. 7220-CS, and Iclub […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Court Cases, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Charter & bylaws, Delaware cases, Delaware law, DGCL, Forum selection, Shareholder rights
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Innovation, Reallocation, and Growth
In our paper, Innovation, Reallocation, and Growth, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we build a micro-founded model of firm innovation and growth, enabling us an examination of the forces jointly driving innovation, productivity growth and reallocation. In the second part of our paper, we estimate the parameters of the model using simulated […]
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Posted in Academic Research
Tagged Growth rates, Innovation, R&D, Taxation
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CEO-Board Chair Separation: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
One of the most contentious corporate governance issues for boards of directors is board leadership, and specifically whether sitting CEOs should also serve as board chairs. This report examines three types of CEO-board chair separation and their consequences on company performance. To date, research on CEO-chair separation has yielded only one overarching conclusion: a CEO […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board independence, Boards of Directors, Management, Non-executive chairman, The Conference Board
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