14th Annual Drexel Corporate Governance Conference
- 15 - 16 April 2021
- •
- Online
Thursday, 15 April 2021 | 12:00 - 14:20 EDT (18:00 - 20:20 CEST)
Friday, 16 April 2021 | 12:00 - 14:00 EDT (18:00 - 20:00 CEST)
Organised by
Michelle Lowry (Drexel University and ECGI)
Supported by
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Since 2008, the Annual Corporate Governance Conference at Drexel University, hosted by the Gupta Governance Institute, has highlighted top academic research. The research is accepted for the conference when it is in its early stages and much of it is subsequently published in the most highly regarded research journals. Within a decade, the conference has had 84% of presented papers subsequently published (64% in top 3 journals) and it has become a key event of the finance research calendar.
The conference featured theoretical and empirical research related to corporate governance. It included but was not restricted to, topics such as Boards of Directors, compensation, shareholder activism, mergers, debt as a form of governance, ESG-related issues, political influences on governance, and more. The programme committee, which includes a number of ECGI Research Members, comprises: Renee Adams; Jeffrey Coles; Diane Del Guerico; David Denis; Diane Denis; Laura Field; Nick Gantchev; Todd Gormley; Tom Griffin; Jarrad Harford; Peter Iliev; Wei Jiang; Dalida Kadyrzanova; Jonathan Karpoff; Nadya Malenko; Kevin Murphy; Lalitha Naveen; Micah Officer; Gordon Phillips; Anil Shivdasani; Anh Tran; Michael S. Weisbach; Jared Wilson; Tracie Woidtke; Yuhai Xuan; Ke Yang; and David L. Yermack.
The conference was organised by Michelle Lowry, TD Bank Endowed Professor of Finance, Academic Director of the Gupta Governance Institute, Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, and ECGI Research Member. ECGI is honoured to be associated with this event in 2021.
Wharton Research Data Services generously provides sponsorship for the conference, including offering a $1,000 best paper prize which will be voted on during the conference.
Thursday April 15th, 2021 | 12:00 EDT (18:00 CET)
Welcome and Introductions
Speakers:
CEO Pet Projects
Authors: Paul Decaire and Denis Sosyura
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
New Ideas Session
Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management and Voting Decisions
Speakers:
Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management and Voting Decisions
Authors: Simi Kedia (presenting author) and Xianjue Wang
Speakers
A Theory of Capital Structure with EPS-fixated Investors
Speakers:
A Theory of Capital Structure with EPS-fixated Investors
Authors: Itzhak Ben-David (presenting author), Stacey Jacobsen, Jack Liebersohn, and Tzachi Zach
Speakers
Exporting Pollution: Where Do Multinational Firms Emit CO2?
Despite widespread awareness of the detrimental impact of CO2 pollution on the world climate, countries vary widely in how they design and enforce...
Read more
How Important is Moral Hazard for Distressed Banks?
The moral hazard incentives of the bank safety net predict that distressed banks take on more risk and higher leverage. Since many factors reduce these...
Read moreBreak
CEO Activism and Firm Value
Authors: Anahit Mkrtchyan, Jason Sandvik, and Vivi Zhu
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
ESG Shareholder Engagement and Downside Risk
We show that engagement on environmental, social, and governance issues can benefit shareholders by reducing firms’ downside risks. We find that the...
Read more
Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)predictable Past of ESG Ratings
The explosion in ESG research has led to a strong reliance on ESG rating providers. We document widespread changes to the historical ratings of a key...
Read more
Firm-level Climate Change Exposure
We develop a method that identifies the attention paid by earnings call participants to firms' climate change exposures. The method adapts a machine...
Read more
Climate Risk Disclosure and Institutional Investors
Employing disclosure theory, we develop hypotheses regarding the preferences of institutional investors with respect to firms’ climate risk...
Read more
The Effects of Mandatory ESG Disclosure around the World
We compile a novel dataset on mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure around the world to analyze the stock liquidity effects...
Read more
Do Investors Care About Biodiversity?
This paper introduces a new measure of a firm's negative impact on biodiversity, the corporate biodiversity footprint, and studies whether it is priced...
Read more
The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors
According to our survey about climate risk perceptions, institutional investors believe climate risks have financial implications for their...
Read more
Institutional Investors and Corporate Governance
We provide a comprehensive overview of the role of institutional investors in corporate governance with three main components. First, we establish...
Read morePaper Conclusion (Optional Break-out Rooms with Authors)
Friday April 16th, 2021 | 12:00 EDT (18:00 CET)
Board Dynamics over the Startup Life Cycle
Authors: Michael Ewens and Nadya Malenko
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
Corporate Governance Implications of the Growth in Indexing
Passively managed funds have grown to become some of the largest shareholders in publicly traded companies, but there is considerable debate about the...
Read more
Creating Controversy in Proxy Voting Advice
We analyze the design of recommendations (available to all shareholders) and research reports (available only to subscribers) by a proxy advisor, who...
Read more
The Voting Premium
This paper develops a unified theory of blockholder governance and the voting premium. It explains how and why a voting premium emerges in the absence of...
Read more
Voting Choice
Traditionally, fund managers cast votes on behalf of investors whose capital they manage. Recently, this system has come under intense debate given the...
Read more
Trading and Shareholder Democracy
We study shareholder voting in a model in which trading affects the composition of the shareholder base. Trading and voting are complementary, which...
Read more
Deadlock on the Board
We develop a dynamic model of board decision-making akin to dynamic voting models in the political economy literature. We show a board could retain a...
Read more
Corporate Governance in the Presence of Active and Passive Delegated Investment
We examine the governance implications of passive fund growth. In our model, investors allocate capital between passive funds, active funds, and...
Read more
Information Flows, Organizational Structure, and Corporate Governance
This survey provides an overview of theoretical and empirical research on information flows in corporations. It highlights key frictions preventing...
Read moreBreak
Does Private Equity Ownership Make Firms Cleaner? The Role of Environmental Liability Risks
Speakers:
Discussant:
Does Private Equity Ownership Make Firms Cleaner? The Role of Environmental Liability Risks
Authors: Aymeric Bellon
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
Short Campaigns by Hedge Funds
ecent years have seen the rise of short campaigns by hedge funds. Nearly 80% of campaigns are undertaken by activist hedge funds, particularly those that...
Read more
The Limits of Limited Liability: Evidence from Industrial Pollution
We study how parent liability for subsidiaries’ environmental cleanup costs affects industrial pollution and production. Our empirical setting...
Read moreClosing Remarks and Announcement of Best Paper and Best Discussant
Speakers:
Closing Remarks and Announcement of Best Paper and Best Discussant
Paper presentations will be for 20 minutes, followed by a 15-minute discussion and then audience Q&A
Speakers
The Changing Landscape of Corporate Governance Disclosure: Impact on Shareholder Voting
Many mutual funds satisfy their fiduciary duty to vote on portfolio firms’ directors by following the recommendations of proxy advisory service...
Read more
Are All ESG Funds Created Equal? Only Some Funds Are Committed
Although flows into ESG funds have risen dramatically, it remains unclear whether these funds are truly committed to sustainable investments and how...
Read more
Firms’ Transition to Green: Innovation versus Lobbying
Innovation in green technologies is viewed as a crucial driver of the transition to greener modes of production and consumption. However, there is...
Read more
ES Risks and Shareholder Voice
We examine whether shareholder votes in environmental and social (ES) proposals are informative about firms’ ES risks. ES proposals are unique in...
Read more
The Culture of the Finance Profession: Evidence from the 2020/2021 American Finance Association Survey
In 2017, the board of AFFECT (the Academic Female Finance Committee) proposed that the AFA carry out a professional culture survey. Some key...
Read more
The Gender Pay Gap: Pay for Performance and Sorting across Employers
We document a gender pay gap among business professors at Florida public universities. Part of this gap is driven by the fact that females are...
Read more
The Blurring Lines between Private and Public Ownership
As companies choose to stay private longer, they increasingly resemble their public counterparts. Along multiple dimensions, the shift from private...
Read more
Bucking the Trend: Why do IPOs Choose Controversial Governance Structures and Why Do Investors Let Them
While the percentage of mature firms with classified boards or dual class shares has declined by more than 40% since 1990, the percentage of IPO firms with...
Read morePaper Conclusion (Optional Break-out Rooms with Authors)
Speakers
Presentations
Welcome and Introductions
Welcome and Introductions
Speakers
Does Mandatory Shareholder Voting Prevent Bad Acquisitions?
Shareholder voting on corporate acquisitions is controversial. In most countries acquisition decisions are delegated to boards and shareholder...
Read more
Firms’ Transition to Green: Innovation versus Lobbying
Innovation in green technologies is viewed as a crucial driver of the transition to greener modes of production and consumption. However, there is...
Read more
ES Risks and Shareholder Voice
We examine whether shareholder votes in environmental and social (ES) proposals are informative about firms’ ES risks. ES proposals are unique in...
Read more
Are All ESG Funds Created Equal? Only Some Funds Are Committed
Although flows into ESG funds have risen dramatically, it remains unclear whether these funds are truly committed to sustainable investments and how...
Read more
Corporate Governance and Control
Corporate governance is concerned with the resolution of collective action problems among dispersed investors and the reconciliation of conflicts of...
Read more
The Gender Pay Gap: Pay for Performance and Sorting across Employers
We document a gender pay gap among business professors at Florida public universities. Part of this gap is driven by the fact that females are...
Read more
Loyalty Shares with Tenure Voting - Does the Default Rule Matter? Evidence from the Loi Florange Experiment
The contractual theory of the firm predicts that companies adopt charters that maximise firm value, regardless of the default rule. We test this...
Read more
Outsourcing Active Ownership in Japan
This paper examines active ownership in Japan by an equity ownership service, Governance for Owners Japan (GOJ). GOJ engages with...
Read moreCEO Pet Projects
CEO Pet Projects
Authors: Paul Decaire and Denis Sosyura
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management and Voting Decisions
Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management and Voting Decisions
Authors: Simi Kedia (presenting author) and Xianjue Wang
Speakers
A Theory of Capital Structure with EPS-fixated Investors
A Theory of Capital Structure with EPS-fixated Investors
Authors: Itzhak Ben-David (presenting author), Stacey Jacobsen, Jack Liebersohn, and Tzachi Zach
Speakers
Exporting Pollution: Where Do Multinational Firms Emit CO2?
Despite widespread awareness of the detrimental impact of CO2 pollution on the world climate, countries vary widely in how they design and enforce...
Read more
How Important is Moral Hazard for Distressed Banks?
The moral hazard incentives of the bank safety net predict that distressed banks take on more risk and higher leverage. Since many factors reduce these...
Read moreCEO Activism and Firm Value
CEO Activism and Firm Value
Authors: Anahit Mkrtchyan, Jason Sandvik, and Vivi Zhu
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)predictable Past of ESG Ratings
The explosion in ESG research has led to a strong reliance on ESG rating providers. We document widespread changes to the historical ratings of a key...
Read more
ESG Shareholder Engagement and Downside Risk
We show that engagement on environmental, social, and governance issues can benefit shareholders by reducing firms’ downside risks. We find that the...
Read more
Institutional Investors and Corporate Governance
We provide a comprehensive overview of the role of institutional investors in corporate governance with three main components. First, we establish...
Read more
The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors
According to our survey about climate risk perceptions, institutional investors believe climate risks have financial implications for their...
Read more
The Effects of Mandatory ESG Disclosure around the World
We compile a novel dataset on mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure around the world to analyze the stock liquidity effects...
Read more
Firm-level Climate Change Exposure
We develop a method that identifies the attention paid by earnings call participants to firms' climate change exposures. The method adapts a machine...
Read more
Climate Risk Disclosure and Institutional Investors
Employing disclosure theory, we develop hypotheses regarding the preferences of institutional investors with respect to firms’ climate risk...
Read more
Do Investors Care About Biodiversity?
This paper introduces a new measure of a firm's negative impact on biodiversity, the corporate biodiversity footprint, and studies whether it is priced...
Read moreBoard Dynamics over the Startup Life Cycle
Board Dynamics over the Startup Life Cycle
Authors: Michael Ewens and Nadya Malenko
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
Advising the Management: A Theory of Shareholder Engagement
We study the effectiveness of shareholder engagement, that is, shareholders communicating their views to management. When shareholders and...
Read more
The Voting Premium
This paper develops a unified theory of blockholder governance and the voting premium. It explains how and why a voting premium emerges in the absence of...
Read more
Deadlock on the Board
We develop a dynamic model of board decision-making akin to dynamic voting models in the political economy literature. We show a board could retain a...
Read more
Corporate Governance Implications of the Growth in Indexing
Passively managed funds have grown to become some of the largest shareholders in publicly traded companies, but there is considerable debate about the...
Read more
Information Flows, Organizational Structure, and Corporate Governance
This survey provides an overview of theoretical and empirical research on information flows in corporations. It highlights key frictions preventing...
Read more
Creating Controversy in Proxy Voting Advice
We analyze the design of recommendations (available to all shareholders) and research reports (available only to subscribers) by a proxy advisor, who...
Read more
Trading and Shareholder Democracy
We study shareholder voting in a model in which trading affects the composition of the shareholder base. Trading and voting are complementary, which...
Read more
Corporate Governance in the Presence of Active and Passive Delegated Investment
We examine the governance implications of passive fund growth. In our model, investors allocate capital between passive funds, active funds, and...
Read moreDoes Private Equity Ownership Make Firms Cleaner? The Role of Environmental Liability Risks
Does Private Equity Ownership Make Firms Cleaner? The Role of Environmental Liability Risks
Authors: Aymeric Bellon
Speakers
Discussants
Conference Documents
The Limits of Limited Liability: Evidence from Industrial Pollution
We study how parent liability for subsidiaries’ environmental cleanup costs affects industrial pollution and production. Our empirical setting...
Read more
Short Campaigns by Hedge Funds
ecent years have seen the rise of short campaigns by hedge funds. Nearly 80% of campaigns are undertaken by activist hedge funds, particularly those that...
Read moreClosing Remarks and Announcement of Best Paper and Best Discussant
Closing Remarks and Announcement of Best Paper and Best Discussant
Paper presentations will be for 20 minutes, followed by a 15-minute discussion and then audience Q&A
Speakers
Bucking the Trend: Why do IPOs Choose Controversial Governance Structures and Why Do Investors Let Them
While the percentage of mature firms with classified boards or dual class shares has declined by more than 40% since 1990, the percentage of IPO firms with...
Read more
Firms’ Transition to Green: Innovation versus Lobbying
Innovation in green technologies is viewed as a crucial driver of the transition to greener modes of production and consumption. However, there is...
Read more
The Changing Landscape of Corporate Governance Disclosure: Impact on Shareholder Voting
Many mutual funds satisfy their fiduciary duty to vote on portfolio firms’ directors by following the recommendations of proxy advisory service...
Read more
Are All ESG Funds Created Equal? Only Some Funds Are Committed
Although flows into ESG funds have risen dramatically, it remains unclear whether these funds are truly committed to sustainable investments and how...
Read more
The Culture of the Finance Profession: Evidence from the 2020/2021 American Finance Association Survey
In 2017, the board of AFFECT (the Academic Female Finance Committee) proposed that the AFA carry out a professional culture survey. Some key...
Read more
Does Common Ownership Really Increase Firm Coordination?
A growing number of studies suggest that common ownership caused cooperation among firms to increase and competition to decrease. We take a closer look...
Read more
ES Risks and Shareholder Voice
We examine whether shareholder votes in environmental and social (ES) proposals are informative about firms’ ES risks. ES proposals are unique in...
Read more
The Gender Pay Gap: Pay for Performance and Sorting across Employers
We document a gender pay gap among business professors at Florida public universities. Part of this gap is driven by the fact that females are...
Read more