In this study we examine the relation between corporate governance and institutional ownership. Our empirical results show that the fraction of a company's shares that are held by institutional investors increases with the quality of its governance structure. In a similar vein, we show that the...

This paper demonstrates the existence of different institutional investor preferences for equity characteristics, and makes the link between these preferences and firm value. We show that transient institutional investors (those that trade frequently with a view to maximizing short term gains)...

Institutional investors report that they prefer to invest in firms with greater board independencedespite the fact that researchers have been unable to demonstrate a link between boardindependence and firm performance. We investigate whether differences among institutionalinvestors affect these...

We examine whether institutions' monitoring effectiveness is related to the number of their blockholdings. We find that the number of blocks that a firm's large institutions hold is positively associated with forced chief executive officer (CEO) turnover-performance sensitivity, abnormal returns...

Passive institutional investors are an increasingly important component of U.S. stock ownership. To examine whether and by which mechanisms passive investors influence firms' governance, we exploit variation in ownership by passive mutual funds associated with stock assignments to the Russell...

Using unique data on investor views of EDGAR company filings, we document that many investors devote significant effort towards governance research. However, investors' monitoring is focused disproportionately on large firms and firms with meetings outside the busy spring proxy season. Using an...

This paper utilizes a rich literature on institutional investors' governance roles and develops simple measures of institutional discontent expressed through holding, trading and voice channels to predict hedge fund activism target selection. Discontent expressed through all three channels leads...

I examine how institutional investment horizon affects hedge fund activism. I find that hedge fund activism is higher in firms that long-term institutional investors invest. Furthermore, hedge fund campaigns and success rates differ with investment horizon of institutions. Firms with investors...