David Matsa, Todd A. Gormley - Thursday, June 12, 2014 This paper examines risk-averse managers' incentive to "play it safe" by taking value-destroying actions that reduce their firms' risk of distress. We find that, after managers are insulated by the passage of an...

Marti G. Subrahmanyam, Menachem Brenner, Patrick Augustin - Thursday, June 12, 2014 We investigate informed trading activity in equity options prior to the announcement of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A). For the target companies, we document pervasive...

IRRC Institute, Si2 - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 Board oversight has long been viewed as an effective mechanism to direct and monitor corporate management. For example, in the wake of accounting scandals last decade, the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002 requires all publicly...

IRRC Institute, ISS - Thursday, April 10, 2014 A new study finds that the level of engagement between investors and publicly traded U.S. corporations is at an all time high. Both investors and corporate officials surveyed believe the increased level of engagement is...

IRRC Institute - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Associety increasingly faces governance challenges at all levels, there is a growing recognition of the need to take a longer term and more systemic view of fiduciary obligations. We begin this article with a summary discussion...

IRRC Institute - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 During the period 1991-1999, stock returns were correlated with the G-Index based on twenty-four governance provisions (Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick (2003)) and the E-Index based on the six provisions that matter most (Bebchuk,...

IRRC Institute and the Sustainable Investments Institute - Monday, April 29, 2013 Every company in the S&P 500 except one reports some form of sustainability disclosure, but fewer quantify those disclosures in terms of bottom line impacts, according to a new...

IRRC Institute, ISS - Tuesday, October 2, 2012A new study finds that controlled companies - particularly those with multiple classes of shares - generally underperform over the long term. As compared to companies with dispersed ownership, controlled companies...

IRRC Institute, The John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance - Saturday, September 22, 2012 An over-reliance on peer group compensation benchmarking is central to the persistent issue of rising executive pay in the United States, new research finds. While...

GMI Ratings, IRRC Institute - Thursday, August 16, 2012 In theory, the most significant corporate governance check and balance between public company shareowners and the company is the ability to elect corporate directors. In reality, that control mechanism is...

IRRC Institute, Tellus Institute - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 With more than $400 billion in combined assets under management, US college and university endowments constitute an important segment of institutional investors involved in sustainable and responsible...

Richard Fields, Robyn Bew - Monday, June 4, 2012 A new report finds that proxy advisory firms clearly impact the corporate governance dialogue, but that mutual funds generally consider multiple factors in deciding how to vote. Additionally, voting outcomes do not...