We analyze an extensive proprietary database of corporate social responsibility
engagements with US public companies from 1999–2009. Engagements address …

We survey institutional investors to better understand their role in the corporate governance
of firms. Consistent with a number of theories, we document widespread behind‐the‐scenes …

Can algorithms assist firms in their decisions on nominating corporate directors? Directors
predicted by algorithms to perform poorly indeed do perform poorly compared to a realistic …

Proxy advisory firms have become important players in corporate governance, but the extent
of their influence over shareholder votes is debated. We estimate the effect of Institutional …

This paper asks whether dissent votes in uncontested director elections have consequences
for directors. We show that contrary to popular belief based on prior studies, shareholder …

We investigate whether business ties with portfolio firms influence mutual funds' proxy voting
using a comprehensive data set spanning 2003 to 2011. In contrast to prior literature, we …

We provide a comprehensive overview of the role of institutional investors in corporate
governance with three main components. First, we establish new stylized facts documenting …

We study shareholder support for corporate board nominees before and after the 2018
California gender quota. Pre-quota, new female nominees received greater support than …

Hedge fund activists have ambiguous relationships with the institutional shareholders in
their target firms. While some support their activities, others counter their actions. Due to their …

Abstract We study how Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) affect firms' engagement with
shareholders. Our analyses exploit a quasi-natural experiment using say-on-pay voting …