Shareholders are widely perceived as the best advocates of stakeholders’ interests. We can dub this phenomenon shareholders stakeholderism: the pursuit of stakeholders’ good by shareholders. This leads us to wonder whether the pursuit of stakeholders’ good by shareholders is just a perception; or has something changed? Industry and academics seem to suggest that the perception is… Read More »
Given the recent surge of ransomware attacks and escalating conflict with Russia, assessing a cyber insurance policy’s war/terrorism exclusion has never been more important. The cyber war exclusion, used by insurers to insulate against catastrophic risk, has been a considerable topic of discussion due to its overly broad language and potential for misapplication. Nearly all… Read More »
”The bankruptcy system is supposed to work for everyone, but in many cases it works only for the powerful” – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, July 28th, 2021. Since at least Frank (1931), researchers have recognized that judicial outcomes are subject to the biases of the ruling judge. To alleviate concerns of fairness, courts in both… Read More »
Racial disparities in the traditional small business credit market are a well-documented phenomenon in the U.S. With the recent development of more automated and anonymized lending technologies comes a natural question: do fintech lenders serve minority-owned businesses who are in the blind spots of traditional lenders? In our recent project, we investigate whether minority borrowers are more likely to use… Read More »
The use of financially material environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) information by pension fiduciaries in investment analysis continues to be a hot topic. On October 14, 2021, the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a proposed rule entitled “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights.” As the title suggests, the proposal addresses the fiduciary… Read More »
Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has come to the forefront of both academic and popular attention. Firms publicize their commitments to CSR, establish CSR governance structures, and issue CSR reports. CSR is defined as the economic, legal, moral, and philanthropic actions of firms that influence the quality of life of relevant stakeholders. Socially responsible firms promote efforts to… Read More »
When addressing the Global Trade in Services Summit in September 2021, President Xi Jinping announced the launch of the Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE), which provides an extra financing channel for the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).[1] The BSE has been built upon the select tier of China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), an over-the-counter market… Read More »
Climate change poses significant risks to the private sector, which researchers estimate to be in the order of $2.5-24 trillion, or up to 17% of global assets under management. However, given the most significant climate change risks may not materialize within the tenure of current corporate and financial actors, direct incentives to avert the tragedy of the horizon may… Read More »
Having “friends in high places” can bring many benefits. But what happens if these “friends” are involved in shady business dealings, use taxpayer funds to finance lavish offices or vacations, are subject to sexual harassment lawsuits, or express homophobic or xenophobic views? In a recent working paper, we study whether connections to controversial politicians exposes firms… Read More »
During the most recent United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP-26) on Climate Change, fair financialization of climate justice endeavors gained unprecedented momentum. This post proposes a novel taxation-and-bonds strategy that targets redistributing the gains of a warming earth around the world to offset the losses of global warming. Contemporary attempts to finance climate change mitigation… Read More »
