Environmental and Social Risk and Shareholder Voice

Seminar Abstract

Over the 2004 to 2016 period, over 20% of stakeholder proposals relate to environment and social (ES) issues, and slightly more than half are sponsored by asset management companies.

Support for these proposals has increased substantially over this period, but it remains the case that virtually none receive the minimum threshold support rate to pass.

The paper discussed in this seminar find that failed ES proposals with high investor support significantly predict future firm risk, measured in extreme negative stock returns and real events such as negative ES incidents.

Examining the detailed records of mutual fund votes, we uncover the myopia with investors and management contributes to these proposals not receiving greater support.

Booking

This seminar is free to attend. We warmly encourage you to bring along your friends, colleagues and classmates.

Speaker bio

Dr Bige Kahraman Alper is an Associate Professor in Finance at Saïd Business School and a Fellow of Kellogg College at the University of Oxford.

She holds a PhD in Economics from Yale University with specialisations in financial economics and econometrics.

She is a Research Affilate in the Financial Economics programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CERP) as well as an Economic Adviser to Financial Conduct Authority.

Bige's research focuses on analysing the sources of market frictions giving rise to market inefficiency and systemic liquidity crises.

Her recent studies quantify the importance of various frictions. For instance, arising from capital constraints, organisational structures in asset management intermediaries and asymmetric information. Her research also includes examining the role of financial innovation that can help overcome these frictions.

Dr Bige Kahraman Alper's papers have appeared in top academic journals such as;

• Journal of Finance
• Review of Financial Studies