Leading by Example: Can One Large Shareholder’s Voting Pre-Disclosure Influence Voting Outcomes?

We analyze the causal impact of a large shareholder disclosing its voting decisions prior to shareholder meetings on final vote outcomes for management and shareholder proposals. We find that pre-disclosures of against votes lead to an average increase of 2.8 percentage points in against votes by other shareholders. Voting pre-disclosures are more effective for proposals with a higher information demand, and if the large shareholder pre-discloses a decision that is not directly observable from its proxy-voting guidelines. Negative voting pre-disclosure induced increases in votes against directors are followed by economically and statistically relevant increases in director turnover.