IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v95y2025ics0929119925001506.html

Shareholder litigation rights, CEO turnover, and board monitoring

Author

Listed:
  • Yong, Hue Hwa Au
  • Loriot, Blake
  • Merkoulova, Yulia

Abstract

We investigate how shareholder litigation rights impact CEO turnover decisions and board oversight. We exploit an unexpected court ruling that increased hurdles for shareholders of Ninth Circuit firms to initiate securities class action lawsuits. After the ruling, the sensitivity of forced CEO turnover to performance decreases for firms in the Ninth Circuit. Additionally, board independence declines and directors of Ninth Circuit firms attend fewer meetings and hold more external board positions after the decision. These effects are exacerbated in firms that lack monitoring from institutional shareholders. For firms dependent on shareholder litigation, the reduction in litigation rights was economically significant and led to a 9.72 % decline in firm value.

Suggested Citation

  • Yong, Hue Hwa Au & Loriot, Blake & Merkoulova, Yulia, 2025. "Shareholder litigation rights, CEO turnover, and board monitoring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:95:y:2025:i:c:s0929119925001506
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2025.102882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119925001506
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2025.102882?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eisfeldt, Andrea L. & Kuhnen, Camelia M., 2013. "CEO turnover in a competitive assignment framework," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 351-372.
    2. Hirshleifer, David & Thakor, Anjan V., 1994. "Managerial performance, boards of directors and takeover bidding," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 63-90, March.
    3. Pukthuanthong, Kuntara & Turtle, Harry & Walker, Thomas & Wang, Jun, 2017. "Litigation risk and institutional monitoring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 342-359.
    4. Francis, J & Philbrick, D & Schipper, K, 1994. "Shareholder Litigation And Corporate Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 137-164.
    5. Lixiong Guo & Ronald W. Masulis, 2015. "Board Structure and Monitoring: New Evidence from CEO Turnovers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(10), pages 2770-2811.
    6. Dirk Jenter & Katharina Lewellen, 2021. "Performance-Induced CEO Turnover [The “Wall Street Walk” and shareholder activism: Exit as a form of voice]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 569-617.
    7. Hwang, Byoung-Hyoun & Kim, Seoyoung, 2009. "It pays to have friends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 138-158, July.
    8. Islam, Emdad & Rahman, Lubna, 2023. "Shades of grey: Risk-related agency conflicts and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Arena, Matteo P. & Julio, Brandon, 2023. "Litigation Risk Management Through Corporate Payout Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 148-174, February.
    10. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    11. Sudipto Dasgupta & Xi Li & Albert Y Wang, 2018. "Product Market Competition Shocks, Firm Performance, and Forced CEO Turnover," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(11), pages 4187-4231.
    12. Masulis, Ronald W. & Zhang, Emma Jincheng, 2019. "How valuable are independent directors? Evidence from external distractions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(3), pages 226-256.
    13. Chung, Chune Young & Kim, Incheol & Rabarison, Monika K. & To, Thomas Y. & Wu, Eliza, 2020. "Shareholder litigation rights and corporate acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Arena, Matteo & Julio, Brandon, 2015. "The Effects of Securities Class Action Litigation on Corporate Liquidity and Investment Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1-2), pages 251-275, April.
    15. Cohn, Jonathan B. & Liu, Zack & Wardlaw, Malcolm I., 2022. "Count (and count-like) data in finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 529-551.
    16. Dah, Mustafa A. & Frye, Melissa B. & Hurst, Matthew, 2014. "Board changes and CEO turnover: The unanticipated effects of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 97-108.
    17. Arena, Matteo P. & Wang, Bin & Yang, Rong, 2021. "Securities litigation and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Warner, Jerold B. & Watts, Ross L. & Wruck, Karen H., 1988. "Stock prices and top management changes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 461-492, January.
    19. Eliezer M. Fich & Anil Shivdasani, 2006. "Are Busy Boards Effective Monitors?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 689-724, April.
    20. Colak, Gonul & Korkeamäki, Timo P. & Meyer, Niclas Oskar, 2024. "ESG and CEO turnover around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    21. April Klein & Emanuel Zur, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Shareholder Activism: Hedge Funds and Other Private Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 187-229, February.
    22. Joanna Shuang Wu & Ivy Xiying Zhang, 2019. "Mandatory IFRS Adoption and the Role of Accounting Earnings in CEO Turnover," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 168-197, March.
    23. Fich, Eliezer M. & Shivdasani, Anil, 2007. "Financial fraud, director reputation, and shareholder wealth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 306-336, November.
    24. Ferris, Stephen P. & Jandik, Tomas & Lawless, Robert M. & Makhija, Anil, 2007. "Derivative Lawsuits as a Corporate Governance Mechanism: Empirical Evidence on Board Changes Surrounding Filings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 143-165, March.
    25. Thomas Bourveau & Yun Lou & Rencheng Wang, 2018. "Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from Derivative Lawsuits," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 56(3), pages 797-842, June.
    26. Ni, Xiaoran & Yin, Sirui, 2018. "Shareholder litigation rights and the cost of debt: Evidence from derivative lawsuits," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 169-186.
    27. Lucian A. Taylor, 2010. "Why Are CEOs Rarely Fired? Evidence from Structural Estimation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(6), pages 2051-2087, December.
    28. Hassan, M. Kabir & Houston, Reza & Karim, M. Sydul, 2021. "Courting innovation: The effects of litigation risk on corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    29. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    30. David Hirshleifer & Anjan V. Thakor, 1998. "Corporate Control Through Board Dismissals and Takeovers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 489-520, December.
    31. Liu, Chelsea & Aharony, Joseph & Richardson, Grant & Yawson, Alfred, 2016. "Corporate litigation and changes in CEO reputation: Guidance from U.S. Federal Court lawsuits," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 15-34.
    32. Freund, Steven & Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V., 2023. "Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 512-542, March.
    33. Richard J. Gentry & Joseph S. Harrison & Timothy J. Quigley & Steven Boivie, 2021. "A database of CEO turnover and dismissal in S&P 1500 firms, 2000–2018," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 968-991, May.
    34. Joel F. Houston & Chen Lin & Wensi Xie, 2018. "Shareholder Protection and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(4), pages 677-710.
    35. Nguyen, Hien T. & Phan, Hieu V. & Sun, Lingna (Selina), 2018. "Shareholder litigation rights and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from universal demand laws," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 192-213.
    36. Chen, Jie & Goergen, Marc & Leung, Woon Sau & Song, Wei, 2019. "CEO and director compensation, CEO turnover and institutional investors: Is there cronyism in the UK?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 18-35.
    37. Brochet, Francois & Srinivasan, Suraj, 2014. "Accountability of independent directors: Evidence from firms subject to securities litigation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 430-449.
    38. Alon Brav & Wei Jiang & Frank Partnoy & Randall Thomas, 2008. "Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1729-1775, August.
    39. Claire Liu & Angie Low & Ronald W Masulis & Le Zhang & Wei Jiang, 2020. "Monitoring the Monitor: Distracted Institutional Investors and Board Governance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(10), pages 4489-4531.
    40. Weisbach, Michael S., 1988. "Outside directors and CEO turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 431-460, January.
    41. Dirk Jenter & Fadi Kanaan, 2015. "CEO Turnover and Relative Performance Evaluation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(5), pages 2155-2184, October.
    42. Hermalin, Benjamin E & Weisbach, Michael S, 1998. "Endogenously Chosen Boards of Directors and Their Monitoring of the CEO," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 96-118, March.
    43. A. C. Pritchard & Hillary A. Sale, 2005. "What Counts as Fraud? An Empirical Study of Motions to Dismiss Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(1), pages 125-149, March.
    44. Donelson, Dain C. & Kettell, Laura & McInnis, John & Toynbee, Sara, 2022. "The need to validate exogenous shocks: Shareholder derivative litigation, universal demand laws and firm behavior," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    45. Shane S. Dikolli & William J. Mayew & Dhananjay Nanda, 2014. "CEO tenure and the performance-turnover relation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 281-327, March.
    46. Arena, Matteo P., 2018. "Corporate litigation and debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 202-215.
    47. Miriam Schwartz-Ziv & Ekaterina Volkova, 2025. "Is Blockholder Diversity Detrimental?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(2), pages 1356-1390, February.
    48. Coughlan, Anne T. & Schmidt, Ronald M., 1985. "Executive compensation, management turnover, and firm performance : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 43-66, April.
    49. Alan D. Crane & Andrew Koch, 2018. "Shareholder Litigation and Ownership Structure: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 5-23, January.
    50. Helland, Eric, 2006. "Reputational Penalties and the Merits of Class-Action Securities Litigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 365-395, October.
    51. Kim, Irene & Skinner, Douglas J., 2012. "Measuring securities litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 290-310.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anutchanat Jaroenjitrkam & Sirimon Treepongkaruna & Pornsit Jiraporn, 2022. "Does shareholder litigation risk promote or hinder corporate social responsibility? A quasi‐natural experiment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 657-674, May.
    2. Schäfer, Peter, 2025. "How much do boards learn about CEO ability in crises? Evidence from CEO turnover," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V. & Lee, Eunju, 2020. "Shareholder litigation rights and capital structure decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Yiwei Li & Wei Song & Tingyu Sun & Qingjing Zhang, 2023. "The impact of shareholder litigation risk on income smoothing," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1379-1413, November.
    5. Wongsinhirun, Nopparat & Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Lee, Sang Mook, 2024. "Customer concentration and shareholder litigation risk: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    6. Wilson, Jared I., 2020. "The consequences of limiting shareholder litigation: Evidence from exclusive forum provisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Bu, Jun & Fei, Tianlun & Zhou, Futong, 2024. "United we stand, divided we fall: The impact of top management team stability on corporate litigation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    8. von Meyerinck, Felix & Romer, Jonas & Schmid, Markus, 2025. "CEO turnover and director reputation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    9. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Habib, Ahsan, 2023. "Consequences of state-level regulations in accounting, finance, and corporate governance: A review," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Baker, H. Kent & Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Sassi, Syrine, 2024. "Does litigation risk matter for the choice between bank debt and public debt?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Huilin Zhang & Xiaoran Ni & Qi Jin, 2023. "Litigating crashes? Insights from security class actions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 2935-2963, September.
    12. Islam, Emdad & Rahman, Lubna, 2023. "Shades of grey: Risk-related agency conflicts and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    13. Xiaomeng Chen & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2023. "Securities class actions and conditional conservatism: Evidence from two legal events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2441-2471, June.
    14. Leonard Leye Li & Gary S. Monroe & Jeff Coulton, 2023. "Managerial litigation risk and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from universal demand laws," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 196-232, March.
    15. Freund, Steven & Luu, Nguyen H. & Nguyen, Hien T. & Phan, Hieu V. & Trinh, Lan T.P., 2024. "Over-hedging in the shadow of weaker litigation threat," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    16. Dirk Jenter & Katharina Lewellen, 2021. "Performance-Induced CEO Turnover [The “Wall Street Walk” and shareholder activism: Exit as a form of voice]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 569-617.
    17. Do, Trung K., 2021. "Shareholder litigation rights and corporate payout policy: Evidence from universal demand laws," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    18. Feng Chen & Qingyuan Li & Li Xu, 2021. "Universal demand laws and the monitoring demand for accounting conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(7-8), pages 1246-1289, July.
    19. Zhang, Huilin & Boubaker, Sabri & Ni, Xiaoran, 2024. "Litigating payouts or not? Evidence from universal demand laws," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 136-153.
    20. Chang, Sea-Jin & Oh, Ji Yeol Jimmy & Park, Kwangwoo, 2024. "Crowd-sourced CEO approval and turnover," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:95:y:2025:i:c:s0929119925001506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.