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ES Risks and Shareholder Voice

Author

Listed:
  • Yazhou Ellen
  • Bige Kahraman
  • Michelle Lowry

Abstract

We examine whether shareholder votes in environmental and social (ES) proposals are informative about firms’ ES risks. ES proposals are unique in that they nearly always fail. We examine whether mutual funds’ support for these failed proposals contains information about the ES risks that firms face. Higher support in failed ES proposals predicts subsequent ES incidents and the effects of these incidents on shareholder value. Examining the detailed records of fund votes, we find that agency frictions between a group of shareholders contribute to proposal failure.Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online

Suggested Citation

  • Yazhou Ellen & Bige Kahraman & Michelle Lowry, 2023. "ES Risks and Shareholder Voice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(12), pages 4824-4863.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:36:y:2023:i:12:p:4824-4863.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhad033
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Park, Min & Yoon, Aaron & Zach, Tzachi, 2025. "Sell-side analysts’ assessment of ESG risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2).
    2. Zeyuan Huang & Yi Si & Gaoliang Tian & Chongwu Xia & Lei Zhang, 2024. "Learning ESG from stock prices: Evidence from a quasi‐natural experiment in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(5), pages 4619-4646, December.
    3. DeLisle, R. Jared & Grant, Andrew & Mao, Ruiqi, 2024. "Does environmental and social performance affect pricing efficiency? Evidence from earnings conference call tones," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Alberta Di Giuli & Alexandre Garel & Roni Michaely & Arthur Romec, 2026. "Climate Change and Mutual Fund Voting on Climate Proposals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(2), pages 1253-1276, February.
    5. Agoraki, Maria-Eleni K. & Kouretas, Georgios P. & Wu, Haoran & Zhao, Binru, 2025. "Imbalanced ESG investing?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Jha, Manish, 2025. "Do activists align with larger mutual funds?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. Kanamura, Takashi, 2025. "Sustainability arbitrage pricing of ESG derivatives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).
    8. Chen, Linquan & Chen, Yao & Kumar, Alok & Leung, Woon Sau, 2024. "Firm-level ESG information and active fund management," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Roman Kräussl & Tobi Oladiran & Denitsa Stefanova, 2024. "A review on ESG investing: Investors’ expectations, beliefs and perceptions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 476-502, April.
    10. Manish Jha, 2024. "Do Activists Align with Larger Mutual Funds?," Papers 2411.16553, arXiv.org.
    11. Han, Byunghun & Park, Junho & Park, Kwangwoo, 2024. "Air quality, ES risks, and stock returns: Evidence from Korea," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    12. Barg, Johannes A. & Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Schröder, Henning, 2024. "Institutional dual ownership and voluntary greenhouse gas emission disclosure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Liang, Hao & Ng, Lilian & Yoon, Aaron, 2025. "Editorial: What have we learned about green and climate finance?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(5).
    14. Richard B. Evans & Oğuzhan Karakaş & Rabih Moussawi & Michael Young, 2026. "Phantom of the Opera: ETF Shorting and Shareholder Voting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(2), pages 893-914, February.
    15. Thanh D. Huynh & Frank Weikai Li & Ying Xia, 2025. "Something in the air: does air pollution affect fund managers’ carbon divestment?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 2607-2634, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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