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Shareholder Voting and Corporate Governance Around the World

Peter Iliev1; Karl V. Lins2; Darius P. Miller3; Lukas Roth4

1 Pennsylvania State University · 2 University of Utah · 3 Southern Methodist University · 4 University of Alberta

Review of Financial Studies 2015 open access

Using a sample of non-U.S. firms from 43 countries, we investigate whether laws and regulations as well as votes cast by U.S. institutional investors are consistent with an effective shareholder voting process. We find that laws and regulations allow for meaningful votes to be cast, as shareholder voting is both mandatory and binding for important elections. For votes cast, we find there is greater dissent voting when investors fear expropriation. Further, greater dissent voting is associated with higher director turnover and more M&A withdrawals. Our results suggest that shareholder voting is an effective mechanism for exercising governance around the world.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhv008
Volume
28 (8)
Pages
2167-2202
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
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