The Securities and Exchange Commission regulations on climate disclosure, first proposed in March 2022 and likely to be issued in final form in October 2023,[1] have drawn considerable controversy and face an uncertain fate in the inevitable litigation.[2]…

Despite an increasing focus on corporations that profit from social injustices and misconduct, governments and international agencies have had limited success in addressing these issues. Advocates for change suggest that stakeholders, particularly retail consumers, could help, given that their purchasing …

There have been 12 proxy contests that have gone to a vote under the SEC’s universal proxy rules, which became effective on September 1, 2022. A review of these contests reveals several themes.

Overall Results: Activists obtained a board seat …

In recent years, integrity oaths have gained popularity as a tool to reinforce ethical behavior among executives and professionals. However, little is known about the impact of these oaths on firms’ financial reporting quality. We answer this question using data …

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing has drawn  a lot of attention over the past decade, but the extent to which institutional investors have altered their perspective on ESG, as evidenced by their voting and portfolio decisions, remains unclear. In …

Over the last two decades, firms have been under growing pressure from investors, business leaders, and activists to increase female and minority representation on boards of directors. First adopted by Norway in 2003, regulations relating to boardroom gender diversity have …

In a new book, I argue that the conversation about diversity in corporations (legal rules, policy discussions, academic writing, and media narratives) is missing some vital pieces. This means that we are making rules without understanding the full picture …

Knowledge spillovers between firms are a key driver of important economic phenomena such as technological progress (Griliches, 1979), growth in international trade (Grossman and Helpman, 1991), and industrial innovation (Bloom, Schankerman, and Van Reenen, 2013). Although prior research has examined …

For decades, companies have expressed support for the idea that their organizations should increase their demographic diversity while establishing a culture of inclusion. In practice, these firms have generally been unsuccessful. The challenge presented when attempting to match the diversity …

The recent banking turmoil in the U.S. and Europe has led to calls for greater accountability for bank executives. These include an extraordinary statement from President Joe Biden on the need to hold senior executives accountable for bank failures.  Similar …

In a recent paper, we explore the engagement practices of public company shareholders and offer several important insights.

First, contemporary shareholder-company engagement is a multi-dimensional and evolving phenomenon with shareholders using, to varying degrees, a wide range of engagement techniques. …

Large firms today are rarely organized as a single legal entity, but rather as corporate groups with numerous subsidiaries that have separate legal personalities. A debate has long raged over how to treat the legal boundaries between companies belonging to …