The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented shock that has required unique responses from many corporations. Understanding how they have responded is of first-order importance for the fields of corporate governance, corporate finance and stewardship. While some insights begin to emerge, others will take time and depend on more complete data sets to become available, such as financial statements and governance records for 2020.
Such data typically comes from annual reports and proxy statements. US companies with a December 31 fiscal year hold their annual meetings in the spring. They typically file their annual reports by the end of March, but in 2019, some 30 percent of the 7,000 reports were filed in April and later. While firms also publish quarterly data, most release comprehensive annual data only 90 days after their fiscal year end, so the earliest date that a large sample of data on US firms will be available is April 2021. These dates may be similar or even later for firms in other countries.
It is already clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will have dire economic consequences, and collective thought is being applied to what policies can better ensure societies’ resilience and their quick and dynamic recovery once the crisis is over. Corporate governance scholars can help devise sound and effective policies for this purpose.
Possible sub-topics include:
· Corporate social responsibility in war-like times
· Corporate governance digitalization
· The role of institutional investors and stewardship
· Takeover defences and M&A trends
· Bond markets and bankruptcy
· Corporate purpose in times of crisis
· The governance implications of emergency laws and government bailouts
· Securities regulation (disclosure, short-selling bans, etc.)
· ESG and Impact investing
· Climate action finance
· Systemic risk and financial stability following exogenous shocks
This page is intended as a resource for corporate governance research and an understanding of the subject.
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Resources:
Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19 (Stefano Ramelli, Alexander Wagner)
Ramelli, Stefano and Wagner, Alexander F., Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19 (9 March, 2020). Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 20-12. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3550274 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3550274
The market reactions to the 2019 novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) shed light on the importance of international trade and financial policies for firm value. Initially, investors priced negative consequences for internationally-oriented US firms, especially those with China exposure. As the virus spread... Read more
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COVID-19 Is an Opportunity for Europe (Lucrezia Reichlin)
Published in The Project Syndicate, 10 March 2020
The European Union has always advanced on the back of crises. In this sense, the COVID-19 outbreak could represent a chance for the EU to create a powerful crisis-management mechanism, which pools members’ resources and channels them toward a coordinated fiscal policy... Read more
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Stock Exchange Shutdowns in the Time of Coronavirus (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 12 March 2020
If stocks were still traded in pits, stock exchanges would have been shut down in China, Korea, Italy and possibly elsewhere a while ago. A bunch of men shouting and feverishly passing each other sheets of papers would have spread coronavirus faster than the now infamous Korean sect... Read more
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Captured Western Governments Are Failing the Coronavirus Test (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the ProMarket Blog, 13 March 2020
In deciding on possible countermeasures, residents of Western democracies often hear only two opposite perspectives: Is the priority to minimize the loss of human lives, or to minimize the impact that the countermeasures might have on the economy? Even the simplest cost-benefit analysis suggests that the US government should be willing to spend up to $65 trillion and lock down the country to avoid extra deaths... Read more
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Should We Ban Short Sales in a Stock Market Crash? (Marco Pagano)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 13 March 2020
Few things are more predictable than loud demands for regulatory interventions to ‘stop speculation’ when stock market prices plunge: in these days, as in any recent stock market crash, we hear politicians and commentators inviting regulators to enact interventions spanning from stock trading suspension to a short sales ban... Read more
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Coronavirus, Systemic Risk, and Lessons from 2008 (Kathryn Judge)
Published in the CLS Blue Sky Blog, 16 March 2020
The greatest single-day decline in the stock market this century, widespread fear and uncertainty, shuttered schools, an end to large gatherings everywhere from NBA games to the South by Southwest festival – these are just a few of the signs that the United States and the rest of the world will face some very tough economic times in the months and years ahead... Read more
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Why Mass Testing Is Crucial: the US Should Study the Veneto Model to Fight Covid-19 (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the ProMarket Blog, 17 March 2020
The Italian experience suggests that locking downtowns is a necessary but insufficient condition to stop the spread of the disease. If 50 percent of the infected are asymptomatic, there is no hope of containing the disease unless we subject ourselves to massive testing. On February 22, 3 percent of the inhabitants of Vo Euganeo, a small town close to Padua, were infected. After two weeks in which the town was locked down and a massive testing program applied, only 0.25 percent were infected... Read more
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Throwing a COVID-19 Liquidity Life-Line (Markus Brunnermeier, Jean-Pierre Landau, Ricardo Reis, Marco Pagano)
Published in the Oxford Business law Blog, 18 March 2020
Effective economic policies are urgently required to deal with the enormous strain that the global epidemic is putting on all of the European Union (EU) economies. Right away, a key dimension in which the EU can help is in overcoming the liquidity shortages for firms that are facing a temporary yet dramatic drop in their revenues... Read more
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U.S. airlines don’t need a bailout to stay in business (Richard Squire)
Published in the Washington Post, 22 March 2020
With flight bookings in free fall, U.S. airlines have gone to Washington with their hands out, asking for more than $50 billion in loans, guarantees and outright cash grants. And President Trump wants to give them the money, explaining in a White House briefing last week, “We don’t want airlines going out of business.” Yet there is no danger that the airlines are about to disappear, leaving the flying public grounded after the coronavirus crisis passes... Read more
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Economic Effects of Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19) on the World Economy (Nuno Fernandes)
Fernandes, Nuno, Economic Effects of Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19) on the World Economy (March 22, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3557504 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3557504
This report discusses the economic impact of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis across industries, and countries. It also provides estimates of the potential global economic costs of COVID-19, and the GDP growth of different countries, under different scenarios. The report shows the economic effects of outbreak are currently being underestimated, due to over-reliance on historical comparisons with SARS, or the 2008/2009 financial crisis... Read more
(For short summary https://www.iese.edu/stories/global-recession-almost-inevitable/)
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COVID-19: A Global Moratorium for Corporate Bonds? (Kristin van Zwieten, Horst Eidenmüller, Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 23 March 2020
The alarming prospect of widespread defaults by economically viable firms has prompted various proposals for assistance from states. Access to new finance can be facilitated by the state guaranteeing draw-downs on bank overdraft/lines of credit facilities, emergency loans, or, in the case of larger firms, by state purchases of commercial paper. However, firms might face financial distress before these measures become effective... Read more
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Congress Should Endorse the Federal Reserve’s Extraordinary Measures (Kathryn Judge)
Published in the CLS Blue Sky Blog, 24 March 2020
The rapid spread of Covid-19 and massive change in behavior required to curb it have transformed the trajectory of the world’s economy. Just a few short weeks ago, the United States was basking in the longest period of sustained economic growth on record. The country now faces what could be the steepest decline in economic activity in its history... Read more
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The Wrong Target? COVID-19 and the Wrongful Trading Rule (Kristin van Zwieten)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 March 2020
Governments around the world are urgently considering how to support businesses in the COVID-19 crisis. In the UK context, one proposal is for the UK Parliament to temporarily suspend the operation of the wrongful trading rule in the Insolvency Act 1986 (see, eg, here).... Read more
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Enhancing Private Donations in the Fight Against COVID-19 (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 March 2020
In recent weeks, crowdfunding campaigns for donations to hospitals, in Italy and elsewhere, have dramatically multiplied. Amplified by social media postings, such campaigns make it extremely easy for everyone to contribute with a small or a large sum to cope with the covid-19 emergency, reducing (one hopes) the risk of a collapse of national health services... Read more
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Bankruptcy Law Needs a Boost for Coronavirus (Kenneth Ayotte and David Skeel)
Published in the Wall Street Journal, 30 March 2020
Even with trillions of dollars of support coming from Washington, thousands of consumers and businesses are going to default on their debts in the coming months. How ready is the bankruptcy system for the coming wave of distress? For small businesses, the prospects are bleak... Read more
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The Race to Fight COVID-19: On the Desirability of Regulatory Competition (Horst Eidenmüller)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 31 March 2020
Jurisdictions worldwide struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. The two key policy goals are, first, to contain the spread of the virus to protect lives and, second, to minimize the damage to the economy to protect livelihoods. These policy goals are in potential conflict... Read more
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Buyback Critics Are Not Letting the COVID-19 Crisis Go to Waste (Jesse Fried, Charles Wang)
Published in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2 April 2020
Critics of stock buybacks, heeding Rahm Emanuel, are not letting a serious crisis go to waste. They found a way to blame repurchases for COVID-19’s economic fallout, and are exploiting COVID-19 to try to curb their use. But critics’ claims are faulty, and proposed buyback restrictions may well exacerbate COVID-19’s ill effects.... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (Ed Morrison, Andrea C Saavedra)
Morrison, Edward R. and Saavedra, Andrea, Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (April 7, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3567127 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3567127
Policymakers have minimized the role of bankruptcy law in mitigating the financial fallout from COVID-19. Scholars too are unsure about the merits of bankruptcy, especially Chapter 11, in resolving business distress. We argue that Chapter 11 complements current stimulus policies for large corporations, such as the airlines, and that Treasury should consider making it a precondition for receiving government-backed financing... Read more
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Coronavirus and financial stability 3.0: Try equity – risk sharing for companies, large and small (Arnoud Boot, Elena Carletti, Hans‐Helmut Kotz, Jan Pieter Krahnen, Loriana Pelizzon, Marti Subrahmanyam)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 3 April 2020
COVID-19 is a disaster for many firms – especially small and medium-sized ones. This column proposes a scheme that could bring funding to firms quickly without increasing their leverage or default risk. The plan combines outright cash transfers with a temporary, elevated corporate profit tax at the firm level as a form of conditional payback.... Read more
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The EU must be forged in this crisis or it will die (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the Financial Times, 5 April 2020
Italian unification hero Giuseppe Garibaldi is said to have declared during the decisive battle at Calatafimi: “Here we make Italy or we die”. The current fight over how the EU will pay to stop coronavirus can be summed up as: “Here we make Europe or Europe will die.” The reason is simple... Read more
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Survey Results: European Economic Policy for the COVID-19 Crisis (European IGM Economic Experts Panel), 2 April 2020
More commentary from IGM Economic Experts Panel on the topic can be found here
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Letter to governments of the G20 nations (Erik Berglöf, Gordon Brown, Jeremy Farrar)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 7 April 2020
The gravity and urgency of the entwined COVID-19 public health and economic crises must be reflected in an unprecedented response. In this letter world leaders, leading global health experts and economists outline what is needed. The two crises require urgent specific measures that can be agreed on with speed and at scale... Read more
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No more business as usual (Colin Mayer)
Published in Board Agenda, 7 April 2020
Covid-19 has presented business with its biggest challenge since the financial crisis of 2008. Perhaps one of the most pressing questions is whether the development of “purposeful” businesses will continue amidst a crisis that presents an existential threat to so many companies... Read more
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A Response to Eidenmüller’s Defense of Regulatory Competition as a Response to COVID19 (Marco Ventoruzzo)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 8 April 2020
In a recent post on the OBLB, Horst Eidenmüller argues that it is (or might be) desirable that states put forward different regulatory responses—for example with respect to containment measures—to the COVID19 pandemic. His larger point is that a form of regulatory competition among states is beneficial in the fight against the virus... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Fed to the Rescue: Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (Edward R. Morrison, Andrea C. Saavedra)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 9 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 4 May 2020
Current policy discussions tend to minimize the role of bankruptcy law in mitigating the financial fallout from COVID-19. Scholars too are unsure about the merits of bankruptcy, especially Chapter 11, in resolving business distress. In this paper, we argue that bankruptcy should be a central part of policies targeting large corporations, but should be used only as a backup to other policies for consumers and small businesses... Read more
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From Diversity to Coordination: A European Approach to COVID19 (Alessio M. Pacces, Maria Weimer)
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Wall Street CARES!: Who Gets the Hidden Subsidies Under the CARES Act? (John C. Coffee, Jr.)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 15 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 8 May 2020
The CARES Act was passed under intense pressure and with minimal transparency. The consequence of this opaque process is that there are some surprising windfalls. No criticism is here expressed of the act’s purpose, but Wall Street knows one thing about federal subsidies: Charity begins at home.... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: The ECB’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Isabel Schnabel)
Published by the European Central Bank on 16 April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is a shock of unprecedented intensity and severity. The challenges facing all parts of the economy in dealing with the economic, humanitarian and social consequences of this crisis are historic. Central banks are no exception... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: How Banks and Fintechs Can Help Small Businesses Survive COVID-19 (Todd Baker, Kathryn Judge)
This post first appeared on the Columbia Law School Blue Sky blog on 16 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 22 April 2020
Small business assistance has been a central focus of the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and for good reason. Small businesses underlie the vitality of our neighborhoods, spark innovation, and employ almost one-half of the U.S. workforce. In a new working paper... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Easing the economic aftermath of a global pandemic (Mark Roe, John Coates)
Published on Harvard Law Today, 17 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 18 May 2020
Roe and Coates spoke with Harvard Law Today about what could be done to lower the chances of a bankruptcy backlog and how other corporate governance challenges posed by the pandemic should be handled...Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Bankruptcy and the coronavirus (David Skeel)
Published on Brookings, 21 April 2020
Less than two months into the coronavirus crisis, and despite the massive infusion of federal funds, a rise in business bankruptcies has already begun. Even if the current efforts by Congress, the Federal Reserve, and Treasury to counteract the economic shutdown are effective, an enormous wave of bankruptcies may come... Read more
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Necessity is the mother of invention: How to implement a comprehensive debt standstill for COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries (Patrick Bolton, Lee Buchheit , Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Mitu Gulati, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Ugo Panizza, Beatrice Weder di Mauro)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 21 April 2020
Many low- and middle-income countries may face problems servicing their external debts while addressing the COVID-19 emergency. Urgent action is needed to prevent disorderly defaults and litigations. This column presents a mechanism to implement a debt standstill which would free significant resources to cover some of the most immediate costs of the COVID-19 crisis... Read more
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Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash (Rui Albuquerque, Yrjö Koskinen, Shuai Yang, Chendi Zhang)
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown brought about a massive slowdown of the economy and an unparalleled stock market crash. Using U.S. data, this paper explores how firms with high Environmental and Social (ES) ratings fare during the first quarter of 2020 compared to other firms... Read more
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Intelligent Investing for a Post-Crisis Economy (Erik P.M. Vermeulen)
Published in The Startup, 26 April 2020
Economies are in freefall. People are losing their jobs. Companies, large and small, are going out of business. Pension funds are taking a big hit. Consumer confidence is disappearing. As the coronavirus affects more and more sectors, the obvious questions to ask are: What will the world look like after the crisis? How will we ever get back to normal? Are we facing a new economic and social reality?... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Extreme times, Extreme Measures: Pandemic-Resistant Corporate Law (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 22 April 2020
These are exceptional times. Almost everywhere, policymakers are taking exceptional measures. Most of these measures are in the domains of public health, public finance and public law. Among the latter, of great relevance to corporate governance are the rules broadening governments’ powers to authorize large share block purchases (eg, in Germany and Italy)... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series- Fed to the Rescue: Unprecedented Scope, Stretched Authority (Lev Menand)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 27 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 30 April 2020
When it comes to responding to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., the Federal Reserve has emerged as one of the most active institutions at the national level. Its bold and timely interventions have halted a monetary breakdown that would have guaranteed a second Great Depression. And its continuing efforts to avert a vicious cycle of debt defaults are helping to address a sudden economic stop that has made a deep and lasting recession all but inevitable... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series- Insider Trading Data Reveals Pandemic Is a Time for Questioning, Not Answering (Renée Adams, Attila Balogh)
This post first appeared on the ProMarket Blog, 28 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 11 May 2020
Following news reports about executives selling shares in their corporations to avoid losses due to the pandemic, a new study takes a closer look at insider trades and finds that net insider purchases have been positive in February and March, revealing corporate optimism, not pessimism... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Corona and Financial Stability 4.0: Implementing a European Pandemic Equity Fund (Arnoud Boot, Elena Carletti, Hans-Helmut Kotz, Jan Pieter Krahnen, Loriana Pelizzon ,Marti Subrahmanyam)
Published by the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, April 2020
This Policy Letter presents a proposal for designing a program of government assistance for firms hurt by the Coronavirus crisis in the European Union (EU). In our recent Policy Letter 81, we introduced a new, equity-type instrument, a cash-against-tax surcharge scheme, bundled across firms and countries in a European Pandemic Equity Fund (EPEF). The present Policy Letter 84 focuses on the principles and conditions relevant for the operationalization of a EPEF... Read more
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Boards should now embrace and embed values and purpose for the benefit of all (Guy Jubb)
Published by the American Hellenic Chamber of Greece AmChamGR 29 April 2020
Adapting and adjusting to change has always been critical to corporate success and survival, and adapting and adjusting to the Coronavirus and its consequences is no exception. Corporate governance isn’t set in stone and, as Coronavirus lockdowns gradually begin to unwind in many countries and states, boards have a responsibility to reflect on the implications for their companies... Read more
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COVID-19 and Beyond: The Case for Creditor Cooperation Duties in Corporate Workouts (Horst Eidenmüller, Kristin van Zwieten)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 4 May 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing financial distress to economically viable firms on an unprecedented scale. In this post, we introduce the novel idea of creditor cooperation duties to stabilize corporate workouts... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: How to Rescue Startups During the Pandemic (Dorothea Ringe, Wolf-Georg Ringe)
First published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 5 May 2020
The global startup sector looks back on a decade of rising VC investment and favourable economic conditions. Many new technologies and innovative products were recently launched by startups and have already benefitted societies around the globe... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series - Short Selling and Short Selling Disclosure in a Pandemic (Joshua Mitts)
First published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 20 May 2020
Even prior to the emergence of COVID-19, global securities regulators were questioning whether short sellers needed to be put on a tighter leash. On December 4, 2019, Japan’s GPIF, the largest pension fund in the world, announced it would not lend shares to short sellers on its multi-billion portfolio of global equities... Read more
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Britain needs a new 3i (Colin Mayer)
Published in the Financial Times, 19 May 2020
A decentralised government venture fund would help SMEs climb out of the Covid-19 hole. We need small businesses as never before. A post-Covid-19 economy will look different in ways that we cannot yet fathom. As jobs in some companies are permanently lost, the emergence of new ones depends on innovation and expansion in others, and this in turn depends upon whether small and medium-sized enterprises can obtain growth-oriented finance... Read more
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Covid-19: No Time for Lawyers (Wolf-Georg Ringe)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 22 May 2020
The economic fallout from Covid-19 requires extraordinary efforts from governments and central banks around the globe. Many of these emergency measures are controversial. Legal pitfalls abound, but this is no time for lawyers. Nor should it be... Read more
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Pandemic Crisis and Financial Stability (Christos Gortsos, Wolf-Georg Ringe, Danny Busch, Eddy Wymeersch, Blanaid J. Clarke, Matthias Lehmann, Christos Hadjiemmanuil, Marco Lamandini, David Ramos Muñoz, Luis Silva Morais, Filippo Annunziata, Michele Siri, Bart Joosen, Concetta Brescia Morra, Luca Enriques, Marco Pagano, Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, Claudio Frigeni)
In the blink of an eye, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has completely paralysed the world economy. Restaurants, hotels, bars, theatres, cinemas and concert halls have closed their doors and their income has dried up. Events have been cancelled and the aviation and tourism industries have come to an almost complete standstill... Read more
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3607930 (May 22, 2020)
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series - Protectionism: A Threat to Corporate Governance (Maribel Sáez, María Gutiérrez)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 May 2020
This year, spring has arrived in the midst of a generalized lock-down. People have been—and in many places remain—confined to their homes. Most firms and industries are barely operative. In economic sectors where the provision of the corresponding service requires physical contact, nearly all activity has ceased... Read more
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What coronavirus tells company boards about the next crisis (Andrew Hill)
Published in the Financial Times, 26 May 2020
Could board directors and executives have anticipated the pandemic? Yes, responded Louise Pentland, an executive at PayPal, the payments company, and a non-executive director of Japan’s Hitachi, during a recent webinar. Would the prospect of a global shutdown have been taken seriously enough to create a “full playbook” for a pandemic? “I don’t think so. I really don’t.”... Read more
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What the G20 should do now (Erik Berglöf, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 2 June 2020
Our world is at a critical moment. May 30th saw the highest daily figure recorded worldwide for new cases of COVID-19, with countries on every continent attempting to stop the transmission of the virus and save lives. In this letter to world leaders, more than 230 former world leaders and leading global health experts and economists underline the urgency of addressing the medical emergency and providing debt relief to the poorest countries and more resources to the international financial institutions delivering immediate relief to countries facing the effects of an unprecedented, global crisis. They also call for... Read more
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Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 8 June 2020
In April 2020, Monash University hosted the first session of the ECGI/GCGC 24 hour global webinar on The COVID-19 Crisis and Its Aftermath: Corporate Governance Implications and Policy Challenges. The Monash University session, which I chaired, comprised two panel discussions of key corporate governance and financial issues relating to the COVID-19 crisis... Read more
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Estimating the Need for Additional Bankruptcy Judges in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Benjamin Iverson, Jared A. Ellias, Mark J. Roe)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 29 June 2020
We recently estimated the US bankruptcy system’s ability to absorb an anticipated surge of financial distress among American consumers, businesses, and municipalities as a result of COVID-19. An increase in the unemployment rate has historically been a leading indicator of the volume of bankruptcy filings that occur months later... Read more
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Will the World Ever Be the Same after COVID-19? Two Lessons from the First Global Crisis of a Digital Age (Fenwick, Mark and McCahery, Joseph A. and Vermeulen, Erik P.M)
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3660078 (July 24, 2020).
Coronavirus is the first global crisis of a digital age and the divergence in policy responses reflects the challenge of navigating an unprecedented global situation under conditions of enormous uncertainty. We ask what lessons can be learned from this experience and identify two, both of which push against mainstream interpretations of recent events... Read more
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Webinar: Should Financial Markets be Closed? (26 March 2020) - Watch video
This event was hosted by the Center for Financial Markets and Policy (CFMP) at Georgetown University (Submitted by Prof. Renee Aragrwal)
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The Economic and Financial Implications of COVID-19 (3 April 2020) - Watch video
See more events in the Mayo Center for Asset Management Virtual Seminar Series (submitted by Prof. Pedro Matos)
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The COVID-19 Crisis and Its Aftermath: Corporate Governance Implications and Policy Challenges (16 April 2020)
Read summary article | Read detailed report | Watch videos (organised by GCGC and ECGI)
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Born Out of Necessity: A Debt Standstill for COVID-19 (7 May 2020)
Panellists: Patrick Bolton, Lee Buchheit, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Mitu Gulati and Ugo Panizza
Chairs: Erik Berglof and Beatrice Weder di Mauro
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
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How Covid-19 affects women (20 May 2020)
Renée Adams, Matthias Doepke, Michèle Tertilt, Tim Phillips (Moderator)
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
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The Covid-19 Crisis: Legal, Policy and Ethical Challenges (5 June 2020)
University of Oxford, Faculty of Law
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Restraining Dividends (and other Pay-Outs) (24 June 2020)
Francesco Mazzaferro, Viral V. Acharya, Sylvie Mathérat
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
Other useful resources:
National corporate governance related initiatives during the COVID-19 crisis (OECD 28 May 2020)
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Information and resources on COVID-19 responses worldwide.
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[Please send submissions for this page to: elaine.mcpartlan@ecgi.org]
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Resources:
Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19 (Stefano Ramelli, Alexander Wagner)
Ramelli, Stefano and Wagner, Alexander F., Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19 (9 March, 2020). Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 20-12. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3550274 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3550274
The market reactions to the 2019 novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) shed light on the importance of international trade and financial policies for firm value. Initially, investors priced negative consequences for internationally-oriented US firms, especially those with China exposure. As the virus spread... Read more
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COVID-19 Is an Opportunity for Europe (Lucrezia Reichlin)
Published in The Project Syndicate, 10 March 2020
The European Union has always advanced on the back of crises. In this sense, the COVID-19 outbreak could represent a chance for the EU to create a powerful crisis-management mechanism, which pools members’ resources and channels them toward a coordinated fiscal policy... Read more
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Stock Exchange Shutdowns in the Time of Coronavirus (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 12 March 2020
If stocks were still traded in pits, stock exchanges would have been shut down in China, Korea, Italy and possibly elsewhere a while ago. A bunch of men shouting and feverishly passing each other sheets of papers would have spread coronavirus faster than the now infamous Korean sect... Read more
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Captured Western Governments Are Failing the Coronavirus Test (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the ProMarket Blog, 13 March 2020
In deciding on possible countermeasures, residents of Western democracies often hear only two opposite perspectives: Is the priority to minimize the loss of human lives, or to minimize the impact that the countermeasures might have on the economy? Even the simplest cost-benefit analysis suggests that the US government should be willing to spend up to $65 trillion and lock down the country to avoid extra deaths... Read more
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Should We Ban Short Sales in a Stock Market Crash? (Marco Pagano)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 13 March 2020
Few things are more predictable than loud demands for regulatory interventions to ‘stop speculation’ when stock market prices plunge: in these days, as in any recent stock market crash, we hear politicians and commentators inviting regulators to enact interventions spanning from stock trading suspension to a short sales ban... Read more
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Coronavirus, Systemic Risk, and Lessons from 2008 (Kathryn Judge)
Published in the CLS Blue Sky Blog, 16 March 2020
The greatest single-day decline in the stock market this century, widespread fear and uncertainty, shuttered schools, an end to large gatherings everywhere from NBA games to the South by Southwest festival – these are just a few of the signs that the United States and the rest of the world will face some very tough economic times in the months and years ahead... Read more
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Why Mass Testing Is Crucial: the US Should Study the Veneto Model to Fight Covid-19 (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the ProMarket Blog, 17 March 2020
The Italian experience suggests that locking downtowns is a necessary but insufficient condition to stop the spread of the disease. If 50 percent of the infected are asymptomatic, there is no hope of containing the disease unless we subject ourselves to massive testing. On February 22, 3 percent of the inhabitants of Vo Euganeo, a small town close to Padua, were infected. After two weeks in which the town was locked down and a massive testing program applied, only 0.25 percent were infected... Read more
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Throwing a COVID-19 Liquidity Life-Line (Markus Brunnermeier, Jean-Pierre Landau, Ricardo Reis, Marco Pagano)
Published in the Oxford Business law Blog, 18 March 2020
Effective economic policies are urgently required to deal with the enormous strain that the global epidemic is putting on all of the European Union (EU) economies. Right away, a key dimension in which the EU can help is in overcoming the liquidity shortages for firms that are facing a temporary yet dramatic drop in their revenues... Read more
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U.S. airlines don’t need a bailout to stay in business (Richard Squire)
Published in the Washington Post, 22 March 2020
With flight bookings in free fall, U.S. airlines have gone to Washington with their hands out, asking for more than $50 billion in loans, guarantees and outright cash grants. And President Trump wants to give them the money, explaining in a White House briefing last week, “We don’t want airlines going out of business.” Yet there is no danger that the airlines are about to disappear, leaving the flying public grounded after the coronavirus crisis passes... Read more
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Economic Effects of Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19) on the World Economy (Nuno Fernandes)
Fernandes, Nuno, Economic Effects of Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19) on the World Economy (March 22, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3557504 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3557504
This report discusses the economic impact of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis across industries, and countries. It also provides estimates of the potential global economic costs of COVID-19, and the GDP growth of different countries, under different scenarios. The report shows the economic effects of outbreak are currently being underestimated, due to over-reliance on historical comparisons with SARS, or the 2008/2009 financial crisis... Read more
(For short summary https://www.iese.edu/stories/global-recession-almost-inevitable/)
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COVID-19: A Global Moratorium for Corporate Bonds? (Kristin van Zwieten, Horst Eidenmüller, Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 23 March 2020
The alarming prospect of widespread defaults by economically viable firms has prompted various proposals for assistance from states. Access to new finance can be facilitated by the state guaranteeing draw-downs on bank overdraft/lines of credit facilities, emergency loans, or, in the case of larger firms, by state purchases of commercial paper. However, firms might face financial distress before these measures become effective... Read more
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Congress Should Endorse the Federal Reserve’s Extraordinary Measures (Kathryn Judge)
Published in the CLS Blue Sky Blog, 24 March 2020
The rapid spread of Covid-19 and massive change in behavior required to curb it have transformed the trajectory of the world’s economy. Just a few short weeks ago, the United States was basking in the longest period of sustained economic growth on record. The country now faces what could be the steepest decline in economic activity in its history... Read more
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The Wrong Target? COVID-19 and the Wrongful Trading Rule (Kristin van Zwieten)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 March 2020
Governments around the world are urgently considering how to support businesses in the COVID-19 crisis. In the UK context, one proposal is for the UK Parliament to temporarily suspend the operation of the wrongful trading rule in the Insolvency Act 1986 (see, eg, here).... Read more
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Enhancing Private Donations in the Fight Against COVID-19 (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 March 2020
In recent weeks, crowdfunding campaigns for donations to hospitals, in Italy and elsewhere, have dramatically multiplied. Amplified by social media postings, such campaigns make it extremely easy for everyone to contribute with a small or a large sum to cope with the covid-19 emergency, reducing (one hopes) the risk of a collapse of national health services... Read more
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Bankruptcy Law Needs a Boost for Coronavirus (Kenneth Ayotte and David Skeel)
Published in the Wall Street Journal, 30 March 2020
Even with trillions of dollars of support coming from Washington, thousands of consumers and businesses are going to default on their debts in the coming months. How ready is the bankruptcy system for the coming wave of distress? For small businesses, the prospects are bleak... Read more
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The Race to Fight COVID-19: On the Desirability of Regulatory Competition (Horst Eidenmüller)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 31 March 2020
Jurisdictions worldwide struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. The two key policy goals are, first, to contain the spread of the virus to protect lives and, second, to minimize the damage to the economy to protect livelihoods. These policy goals are in potential conflict... Read more
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Buyback Critics Are Not Letting the COVID-19 Crisis Go to Waste (Jesse Fried, Charles Wang)
Published in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2 April 2020
Critics of stock buybacks, heeding Rahm Emanuel, are not letting a serious crisis go to waste. They found a way to blame repurchases for COVID-19’s economic fallout, and are exploiting COVID-19 to try to curb their use. But critics’ claims are faulty, and proposed buyback restrictions may well exacerbate COVID-19’s ill effects.... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (Ed Morrison, Andrea C Saavedra)
Morrison, Edward R. and Saavedra, Andrea, Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (April 7, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3567127 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3567127
Policymakers have minimized the role of bankruptcy law in mitigating the financial fallout from COVID-19. Scholars too are unsure about the merits of bankruptcy, especially Chapter 11, in resolving business distress. We argue that Chapter 11 complements current stimulus policies for large corporations, such as the airlines, and that Treasury should consider making it a precondition for receiving government-backed financing... Read more
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Coronavirus and financial stability 3.0: Try equity – risk sharing for companies, large and small (Arnoud Boot, Elena Carletti, Hans‐Helmut Kotz, Jan Pieter Krahnen, Loriana Pelizzon, Marti Subrahmanyam)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 3 April 2020
COVID-19 is a disaster for many firms – especially small and medium-sized ones. This column proposes a scheme that could bring funding to firms quickly without increasing their leverage or default risk. The plan combines outright cash transfers with a temporary, elevated corporate profit tax at the firm level as a form of conditional payback.... Read more
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The EU must be forged in this crisis or it will die (Luigi Zingales)
Published in the Financial Times, 5 April 2020
Italian unification hero Giuseppe Garibaldi is said to have declared during the decisive battle at Calatafimi: “Here we make Italy or we die”. The current fight over how the EU will pay to stop coronavirus can be summed up as: “Here we make Europe or Europe will die.” The reason is simple... Read more
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Survey Results: European Economic Policy for the COVID-19 Crisis (European IGM Economic Experts Panel), 2 April 2020
More commentary from IGM Economic Experts Panel on the topic can be found here
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Letter to governments of the G20 nations (Erik Berglöf, Gordon Brown, Jeremy Farrar)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 7 April 2020
The gravity and urgency of the entwined COVID-19 public health and economic crises must be reflected in an unprecedented response. In this letter world leaders, leading global health experts and economists outline what is needed. The two crises require urgent specific measures that can be agreed on with speed and at scale... Read more
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No more business as usual (Colin Mayer)
Published in Board Agenda, 7 April 2020
Covid-19 has presented business with its biggest challenge since the financial crisis of 2008. Perhaps one of the most pressing questions is whether the development of “purposeful” businesses will continue amidst a crisis that presents an existential threat to so many companies... Read more
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A Response to Eidenmüller’s Defense of Regulatory Competition as a Response to COVID19 (Marco Ventoruzzo)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 8 April 2020
In a recent post on the OBLB, Horst Eidenmüller argues that it is (or might be) desirable that states put forward different regulatory responses—for example with respect to containment measures—to the COVID19 pandemic. His larger point is that a form of regulatory competition among states is beneficial in the fight against the virus... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Fed to the Rescue: Bankruptcy’s Role in the COVID-19 Crisis (Edward R. Morrison, Andrea C. Saavedra)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 9 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 4 May 2020
Current policy discussions tend to minimize the role of bankruptcy law in mitigating the financial fallout from COVID-19. Scholars too are unsure about the merits of bankruptcy, especially Chapter 11, in resolving business distress. In this paper, we argue that bankruptcy should be a central part of policies targeting large corporations, but should be used only as a backup to other policies for consumers and small businesses... Read more
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From Diversity to Coordination: A European Approach to COVID19 (Alessio M. Pacces, Maria Weimer)
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Wall Street CARES!: Who Gets the Hidden Subsidies Under the CARES Act? (John C. Coffee, Jr.)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 15 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 8 May 2020
The CARES Act was passed under intense pressure and with minimal transparency. The consequence of this opaque process is that there are some surprising windfalls. No criticism is here expressed of the act’s purpose, but Wall Street knows one thing about federal subsidies: Charity begins at home.... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: The ECB’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Isabel Schnabel)
Published by the European Central Bank on 16 April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is a shock of unprecedented intensity and severity. The challenges facing all parts of the economy in dealing with the economic, humanitarian and social consequences of this crisis are historic. Central banks are no exception... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: How Banks and Fintechs Can Help Small Businesses Survive COVID-19 (Todd Baker, Kathryn Judge)
This post first appeared on the Columbia Law School Blue Sky blog on 16 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 22 April 2020
Small business assistance has been a central focus of the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and for good reason. Small businesses underlie the vitality of our neighborhoods, spark innovation, and employ almost one-half of the U.S. workforce. In a new working paper... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Easing the economic aftermath of a global pandemic (Mark Roe, John Coates)
Published on Harvard Law Today, 17 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 18 May 2020
Roe and Coates spoke with Harvard Law Today about what could be done to lower the chances of a bankruptcy backlog and how other corporate governance challenges posed by the pandemic should be handled...Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Bankruptcy and the coronavirus (David Skeel)
Published on Brookings, 21 April 2020
Less than two months into the coronavirus crisis, and despite the massive infusion of federal funds, a rise in business bankruptcies has already begun. Even if the current efforts by Congress, the Federal Reserve, and Treasury to counteract the economic shutdown are effective, an enormous wave of bankruptcies may come... Read more
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Necessity is the mother of invention: How to implement a comprehensive debt standstill for COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries (Patrick Bolton, Lee Buchheit , Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Mitu Gulati, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Ugo Panizza, Beatrice Weder di Mauro)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 21 April 2020
Many low- and middle-income countries may face problems servicing their external debts while addressing the COVID-19 emergency. Urgent action is needed to prevent disorderly defaults and litigations. This column presents a mechanism to implement a debt standstill which would free significant resources to cover some of the most immediate costs of the COVID-19 crisis... Read more
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Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash (Rui Albuquerque, Yrjö Koskinen, Shuai Yang, Chendi Zhang)
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown brought about a massive slowdown of the economy and an unparalleled stock market crash. Using U.S. data, this paper explores how firms with high Environmental and Social (ES) ratings fare during the first quarter of 2020 compared to other firms... Read more
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Intelligent Investing for a Post-Crisis Economy (Erik P.M. Vermeulen)
Published in The Startup, 26 April 2020
Economies are in freefall. People are losing their jobs. Companies, large and small, are going out of business. Pension funds are taking a big hit. Consumer confidence is disappearing. As the coronavirus affects more and more sectors, the obvious questions to ask are: What will the world look like after the crisis? How will we ever get back to normal? Are we facing a new economic and social reality?... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Extreme times, Extreme Measures: Pandemic-Resistant Corporate Law (Luca Enriques)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 22 April 2020
These are exceptional times. Almost everywhere, policymakers are taking exceptional measures. Most of these measures are in the domains of public health, public finance and public law. Among the latter, of great relevance to corporate governance are the rules broadening governments’ powers to authorize large share block purchases (eg, in Germany and Italy)... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series- Fed to the Rescue: Unprecedented Scope, Stretched Authority (Lev Menand)
This post first appeared on The Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on 27 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 30 April 2020
When it comes to responding to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., the Federal Reserve has emerged as one of the most active institutions at the national level. Its bold and timely interventions have halted a monetary breakdown that would have guaranteed a second Great Depression. And its continuing efforts to avert a vicious cycle of debt defaults are helping to address a sudden economic stop that has made a deep and lasting recession all but inevitable... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series- Insider Trading Data Reveals Pandemic Is a Time for Questioning, Not Answering (Renée Adams, Attila Balogh)
This post first appeared on the ProMarket Blog, 28 April 2020 and also on the Oxford Business Law Blog on 11 May 2020
Following news reports about executives selling shares in their corporations to avoid losses due to the pandemic, a new study takes a closer look at insider trades and finds that net insider purchases have been positive in February and March, revealing corporate optimism, not pessimism... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: Corona and Financial Stability 4.0: Implementing a European Pandemic Equity Fund (Arnoud Boot, Elena Carletti, Hans-Helmut Kotz, Jan Pieter Krahnen, Loriana Pelizzon ,Marti Subrahmanyam)
Published by the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, April 2020
This Policy Letter presents a proposal for designing a program of government assistance for firms hurt by the Coronavirus crisis in the European Union (EU). In our recent Policy Letter 81, we introduced a new, equity-type instrument, a cash-against-tax surcharge scheme, bundled across firms and countries in a European Pandemic Equity Fund (EPEF). The present Policy Letter 84 focuses on the principles and conditions relevant for the operationalization of a EPEF... Read more
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Boards should now embrace and embed values and purpose for the benefit of all (Guy Jubb)
Published by the American Hellenic Chamber of Greece AmChamGR 29 April 2020
Adapting and adjusting to change has always been critical to corporate success and survival, and adapting and adjusting to the Coronavirus and its consequences is no exception. Corporate governance isn’t set in stone and, as Coronavirus lockdowns gradually begin to unwind in many countries and states, boards have a responsibility to reflect on the implications for their companies... Read more
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COVID-19 and Beyond: The Case for Creditor Cooperation Duties in Corporate Workouts (Horst Eidenmüller, Kristin van Zwieten)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 4 May 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing financial distress to economically viable firms on an unprecedented scale. In this post, we introduce the novel idea of creditor cooperation duties to stabilize corporate workouts... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series: How to Rescue Startups During the Pandemic (Dorothea Ringe, Wolf-Georg Ringe)
First published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 5 May 2020
The global startup sector looks back on a decade of rising VC investment and favourable economic conditions. Many new technologies and innovative products were recently launched by startups and have already benefitted societies around the globe... Read more
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series - Short Selling and Short Selling Disclosure in a Pandemic (Joshua Mitts)
First published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 20 May 2020
Even prior to the emergence of COVID-19, global securities regulators were questioning whether short sellers needed to be put on a tighter leash. On December 4, 2019, Japan’s GPIF, the largest pension fund in the world, announced it would not lend shares to short sellers on its multi-billion portfolio of global equities... Read more
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Britain needs a new 3i (Colin Mayer)
Published in the Financial Times, 19 May 2020
A decentralised government venture fund would help SMEs climb out of the Covid-19 hole. We need small businesses as never before. A post-Covid-19 economy will look different in ways that we cannot yet fathom. As jobs in some companies are permanently lost, the emergence of new ones depends on innovation and expansion in others, and this in turn depends upon whether small and medium-sized enterprises can obtain growth-oriented finance... Read more
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Covid-19: No Time for Lawyers (Wolf-Georg Ringe)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 22 May 2020
The economic fallout from Covid-19 requires extraordinary efforts from governments and central banks around the globe. Many of these emergency measures are controversial. Legal pitfalls abound, but this is no time for lawyers. Nor should it be... Read more
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Pandemic Crisis and Financial Stability (Christos Gortsos, Wolf-Georg Ringe, Danny Busch, Eddy Wymeersch, Blanaid J. Clarke, Matthias Lehmann, Christos Hadjiemmanuil, Marco Lamandini, David Ramos Muñoz, Luis Silva Morais, Filippo Annunziata, Michele Siri, Bart Joosen, Concetta Brescia Morra, Luca Enriques, Marco Pagano, Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, Claudio Frigeni)
In the blink of an eye, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has completely paralysed the world economy. Restaurants, hotels, bars, theatres, cinemas and concert halls have closed their doors and their income has dried up. Events have been cancelled and the aviation and tourism industries have come to an almost complete standstill... Read more
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3607930 (May 22, 2020)
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GCGC/ECGI Global Webinar Series - Protectionism: A Threat to Corporate Governance (Maribel Sáez, María Gutiérrez)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 25 May 2020
This year, spring has arrived in the midst of a generalized lock-down. People have been—and in many places remain—confined to their homes. Most firms and industries are barely operative. In economic sectors where the provision of the corresponding service requires physical contact, nearly all activity has ceased... Read more
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What coronavirus tells company boards about the next crisis (Andrew Hill)
Published in the Financial Times, 26 May 2020
Could board directors and executives have anticipated the pandemic? Yes, responded Louise Pentland, an executive at PayPal, the payments company, and a non-executive director of Japan’s Hitachi, during a recent webinar. Would the prospect of a global shutdown have been taken seriously enough to create a “full playbook” for a pandemic? “I don’t think so. I really don’t.”... Read more
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What the G20 should do now (Erik Berglöf, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala)
Published in the Vox CEPR Policy Portal, 2 June 2020
Our world is at a critical moment. May 30th saw the highest daily figure recorded worldwide for new cases of COVID-19, with countries on every continent attempting to stop the transmission of the virus and save lives. In this letter to world leaders, more than 230 former world leaders and leading global health experts and economists underline the urgency of addressing the medical emergency and providing debt relief to the poorest countries and more resources to the international financial institutions delivering immediate relief to countries facing the effects of an unprecedented, global crisis. They also call for... Read more
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Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 8 June 2020
In April 2020, Monash University hosted the first session of the ECGI/GCGC 24 hour global webinar on The COVID-19 Crisis and Its Aftermath: Corporate Governance Implications and Policy Challenges. The Monash University session, which I chaired, comprised two panel discussions of key corporate governance and financial issues relating to the COVID-19 crisis... Read more
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Estimating the Need for Additional Bankruptcy Judges in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Benjamin Iverson, Jared A. Ellias, Mark J. Roe)
Published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, 29 June 2020
We recently estimated the US bankruptcy system’s ability to absorb an anticipated surge of financial distress among American consumers, businesses, and municipalities as a result of COVID-19. An increase in the unemployment rate has historically been a leading indicator of the volume of bankruptcy filings that occur months later... Read more
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Will the World Ever Be the Same after COVID-19? Two Lessons from the First Global Crisis of a Digital Age (Fenwick, Mark and McCahery, Joseph A. and Vermeulen, Erik P.M)
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3660078 (July 24, 2020).
Coronavirus is the first global crisis of a digital age and the divergence in policy responses reflects the challenge of navigating an unprecedented global situation under conditions of enormous uncertainty. We ask what lessons can be learned from this experience and identify two, both of which push against mainstream interpretations of recent events... Read more
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Webinar: Should Financial Markets be Closed? (26 March 2020) - Watch video
This event was hosted by the Center for Financial Markets and Policy (CFMP) at Georgetown University (Submitted by Prof. Renee Aragrwal)
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The Economic and Financial Implications of COVID-19 (3 April 2020) - Watch video
See more events in the Mayo Center for Asset Management Virtual Seminar Series (submitted by Prof. Pedro Matos)
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The COVID-19 Crisis and Its Aftermath: Corporate Governance Implications and Policy Challenges (16 April 2020)
Read summary article | Read detailed report | Watch videos (organised by GCGC and ECGI)
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Born Out of Necessity: A Debt Standstill for COVID-19 (7 May 2020)
Panellists: Patrick Bolton, Lee Buchheit, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Mitu Gulati and Ugo Panizza
Chairs: Erik Berglof and Beatrice Weder di Mauro
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
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How Covid-19 affects women (20 May 2020)
Renée Adams, Matthias Doepke, Michèle Tertilt, Tim Phillips (Moderator)
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
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The Covid-19 Crisis: Legal, Policy and Ethical Challenges (5 June 2020)
University of Oxford, Faculty of Law
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Restraining Dividends (and other Pay-Outs) (24 June 2020)
Francesco Mazzaferro, Viral V. Acharya, Sylvie Mathérat
This event is part of the CEPR COVID-19 series
Other useful resources:
National corporate governance related initiatives during the COVID-19 crisis (OECD 28 May 2020)
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Information and resources on COVID-19 responses worldwide.
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[Please send submissions for this page to: elaine.mcpartlan@ecgi.org]
We build a bridge between relationship lending and transactions lending – investigating relationship effects on contract terms for credit cards, a...
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Financial institutions’ heterogeneity, a high degree of dissimilarity across multiple dimensions, including business focuses, correlated asset...
Read more
This Article tests the claims of supporters of stakeholder capitalism (“stakeholderism”) in the context of the COVID pandemic. Supporters of...
Read more
In 2017, the board of AFFECT (the Academic Female Finance Committee) proposed that the AFA carry out a professional culture survey. Some key...
Read moreThe Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented shock that has required unique responses from many corporations. Understanding how they have responded is of first-order importance for the fields of corporate governance, corporate finance and stewardship. While some insights begin to emerge, others will take time and depend on more complete data sets to become available, such as financial statements and governance records for 2020.
Such data typically comes from annual reports and proxy statements. US companies with a December 31 fiscal year hold their annual meetings in the spring. They typically file their annual reports by the end of March, but in 2019, some 30 percent of the 7,000 reports were filed in April and later. While firms also publish quarterly data, most release comprehensive annual data only 90 days after their fiscal year end, so the earliest date that a large sample of data on US firms will be available is April 2021. These dates may be similar or even later for firms in other countries.
It is already clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will have dire economic consequences, and collective thought is being applied to what policies can better ensure societies’ resilience and their quick and dynamic recovery once the crisis is over. Corporate governance scholars can help devise sound and effective policies for this purpose.
Possible sub-topics include:
· Corporate social responsibility in war-like times
· Corporate governance digitalization
· The role of institutional investors and stewardship
· Takeover defences and M&A trends
· Bond markets and bankruptcy
· Corporate purpose in times of crisis
· The governance implications of emergency laws and government bailouts
· Securities regulation (disclosure, short-selling bans, etc.)
· ESG and Impact investing
· Climate action finance
· Systemic risk and financial stability following exogenous shocks
This page is intended as a resource for corporate governance research and an understanding of the subject.
Research Member
John G. Macfarlane Family Chair - Professor of Business Administration (Finance)
from Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Representative Member, Research Member
Head of Department and Professor of Corporate Law
from Paolo Baffi Center on Financial Regulation, Bocconi University Law Department
Research Member
Professor of Finance
from Swiss Finance Institute, University of Zurich
Research Member
Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law
from Columbia Law School
Research Member
Professor of Business & Financial Law
from Tilburg University
Research Member
Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation
from University College London - Faculty of Laws
Fellow, Research Member
Professor of Economics, Facoltà di Economia
from Università di Napoli Federico II
Research Member
Reader in Finance
from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Board Member, Fellow, Research Member
Professor of Corporate Law
from University of Oxford
Representative Member, Research Member
Freshfields Professor of Commercial Law
from University of Oxford
Representative Member, Research Member
Clifford Chance Associate Professor of Law and Finance
from Law Faculty, University of Oxford
