Every Vote Counts: Mandatory Disclosure and Voting Outcomes

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the efficacy of policies that require asset managers to disclose how they vote in shareholder meetings, using a large international sample and staggered regulatory changes. Proposal-level analyses show that after the rule adoption, companies in that jurisdiction experience greater voting participation, and their management proposals are more likely to face defeat or significant dissent. The increase in opposition is more pronounced for the proposals that proxy advisors recommend against, suggesting the incremental dissenting votes incorporate at least low-cost information on proposal quality. The results are robust to alternative fixed effects structures and estimation methods. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of information transparency in motivating governance engagement and monitoring.