Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

April 2012 Dodd-Frank Progress Report

This posting, the April 2012 Davis Polk Dodd-Frank Progress Report, is the thirteenth in a series of Davis Polk presentations that illustrate graphically the progress of the rulemaking work that has been done and is yet to occur under the Dodd-Frank Act. The Progress Report has been prepared using data from the Davis Polk Regulatory […]

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Posted in Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , | Comments Off on April 2012 Dodd-Frank Progress Report

Investor Horizons and Corporate Cash Holdings

It is well known that the separation of ownership and control in public firms causes tension between investors and managers. These so-called “agency problems” are particularly pronounced in the use of corporate cash holdings because it is both easy for managers to misuse cash and hard for investors to evaluate the appropriateness of mangers’ use […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, Institutional Investors | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Learning and the Disappearing Association between Governance and Returns

The Journal of Financial Economics has recently accepted for publication our study, Learning and the Disappearing Association between Governance and Returns. The paper, which was earlier issued as a working paper of the Program on Corporate Governance, is available here. Our study seeks to explain a pattern that has received a great deal of attention […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Elections & Voting, Empirical Research, HLS Research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Hedge Fund Activism in Technology and Life Science Companies

Hedge fund activism has received a lot of attention in the legal and financial communities since the middle of the last decade, and has been identified as a major threat to U.S. public companies. Some of the early literature suggested that hedge funds avoid companies with high levels of R&D (such as technology and life […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shadow Banking and Financial Instability

Editor’s Note: Lord Adair Turner is chairman of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority. This post is based on a speech delivered by Lord Turner at the Cass Business School; the speech and accompanying slides are available here. In autumn 2008 the developed world’s banking system suffered a severe crisis. In response the world’s regulators […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Regulators Materials, Speeches & Testimony | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Insider Trading Restrictions and Insiders’ Supply of Information

In our paper, Insider Trading Restrictions and Insiders’ Supply of Information: Evidence from Reporting Quality, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we exploit a natural experiment involving first-time enforcement of insider trading laws around the world in order to examine the impact of insider trading restrictions on insiders’ supply of information. Following the […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Insider Trading Restrictions and Insiders’ Supply of Information

Nonprofit Corporate Governance: The Board’s Role

Governing boards in the for-profit and nonprofit contexts share many legal precepts: the oversight role, the decision-making power, their place in the organizational structure, and their members’ fiduciary duties. But in the nonprofit setting, misconceptions about corporate governance abound. Are board members primarily fundraisers? Cheerleaders? A rubber stamp to legitimize the actions and decisions of […]

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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Analyzing Global Proxy Voting Practices

Fiscal year 2011 witnessed the SBA’s shift from domestic and foreign asset classes, to a combined global equity portfolio, with a heavier international equity weighting and a more balanced U.S. exposure. With the recent structural changes, the proportion of SBA assets invested in foreign equity markets will continue to rise, and a significant proportion may […]

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Posted in Institutional Investors, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

CFTC Proposes Block Size Rules for Swaps

Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) added Section 2(a)(13)(A) to the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”), which requires the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC” or the “Commission”) to prescribe rules concerning the real-time reporting of swap transaction and pricing data. These rules are intended to provide transparency […]

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Posted in Derivatives, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mandatory IFRS Reporting and Changes in Enforcement

In our paper, Mandatory IFRS Reporting and Changes in Enforcement, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we examine the underlying sources of the capital-market benefits around the introduction of mandatory IFRS reporting. Prior work finds significant capital market benefits and also shows that the effects around IFRS adoption are significantly stronger in countries […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment