In the three decades after World War II, workers and stockholders shared equitably in the nation’s growing wealth. But, during the last several decades, this fair gainsharing has diminished as the power of the stock market, in the form of institutional investors, has grown, and the comparative...

With increased calls from investors, legislators, and academics for corporations to consider employee, environmental, social, and governance factors (“EESG”) when making decisions, boards and managers are struggling to situate EESG within their existing reporting and organizational...

A first-order concern regarding sustainable finance is that it may crowd out individual support for more effective, policy-driven approaches to address societal challenges. We test the validity of this concern in a pre-registered experiment in the context of a real referendum on a climate law...

This study seeks to improve our understanding of how business interests can influence the making of legislation in the specific sector of corporate law and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We want to make the public aware of the legal limits of CSR reporting flowing from the way companies...

The objective of this paper is to present and discuss the new French requirements related to socially responsible investment (SRI), and provide reflections on the potential and limits of regulating SRI. We summarize the consequences of new Monetary and Financial Code Article L. 533-22-1 and the...

This paper, Part One of a 2015-2016 Paper Series, examines the need for ESG data transparency, consistency, and reliability. It identifies (i) the three main drivers creating the rising global capital market systemic risk caused by unrecognized, under-reported, and under-valued ESG risks; (ii)...

We examine the effects of mandatory ESG disclosure around the world using a novel dataset. Mandatory ESG disclosure increases the availability and quality of ESG reporting, especially among firms with low ESG performance. Mandatory ESG reporting has in turn beneficial effects on firm’s...

In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable corporate...

In 2002, U.S. stock exchanges and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act established minimum standards for director independence. An unintended consequence of these director rules was to alter firm choice of other tools for mitigating agency problems. This unintended consequence is studied on a new dataset with...

This Article examines whether recent shifts among private and public markets are part of a more general phenomenon of “shapeshifting” among corporate entities. A shapeshift is a transformation of corporate form involving the creation or use of a new legal entity and one or more changes in...