This paper studies whether green investors can influence corporate greenhouse gas emissions through capital markets, either by divesting their stock and limiting polluters' access to capital, or holding polluters' stock and engaging with management. We focus on public pension funds, classifying...

This paper studies whether green investors can influence corporate greenhouse gas emissions through capital markets, either by divesting their stock and limiting polluters' access to capital, or holding polluters' stock and engaging with management. We focus on public pension funds, classifying...

This paper studies the conditions under which the proxy advice market helps and hinders corporate governance. A key assumption is that investors are heterogeneous, with some focusing only on returns while others also have nonpecuniary goals, such as environmental sustainability and protection of...

This paper estimates to what extent proxy advice allows funds to vote as if they were informed. A fund’s vote is classified as “informed“ if the fund accessed the company’s proxy statement from the SEC’s Edgar website prior to voting. A fund’s proxy advisor, if any, is identified...

Most research on financial systemic stability assumes an economy in which banks are subjectto exogenous shocks, but in practice, banks choose their exposure to risk. This paper studiesthe determinants of this endogenous risk exposure when banks are connected in a financialnetwork. I show that...

Mutual funds rely on recommendations from proxy advisors when voting in corporate elections. Proxy advisors' influence has been a source of controversy, but it is difficult to study because information linking funds to their advisors is not publicly available. A key innovation of this paper is...

In contrast to popular belief, this paper shows that there does not exist an unambiguous positive relationship between an unbiased shareholder's voting power and the quality of corporate governance. I utilize a 2010 NYSE policy change that increased shareholders' voting power in uncontested...