Course Syllabus:
International Corporate Governance: Institutional Investor Activism and Performance

Faculty

Professor B Espen Eckbo

Objectives

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:
Institutional Investor Activism and Performance

This course analyzes international corporate governance issues from the perspective of active institutional investors such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and, increasingly, mutual funds. What are the key issues for these investors, and what are the cost-benefits of activism? How do you effectively engage companies you are invested in, and what is the likely impact on portfolio performance? What constitutes basic shareholder rights, and how costly is it to exercise those rights? How do shareholder rights differ internationally? What are the costs of proxy contest, and what should shareholders do about draconian takeover defenses? How should firms ideally respond to the growing shareholder activism? What are the implications for company directors? Does it make economic sense for shareholders to have “say on pay”? How do directors and managers react to the shifting the balance of power between shareholders and company insiders? Have U.S. capital markets been weakened or strengthened by the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002? Is the European “comply or explain” principle superior to the U.S. approach to governance? What does “socially responsible investment” entail, and what are the effects of negative portfolio screening? The course debates these and other controversial issues through a combination of lectures, articles, and in-class debate with industry leaders.

Requirements

Materials

Grading

Schedule