Are estimates of the impact of shareholder activism published selectively?

Arbeitspapier

Shareholder activism constitutes an increasingly prominent feature of corporate governance landscape. There is a controversy in prior research over whether and how much value activism creates. We examine whether estimates of the impact of shareholder activism are published selectively in prior empirical research. We argue that economists may tend to view activism as a vital corporate governance tool to overcome agency problems and promote economic efficiency. Researchers and journal editors may thus be biased towards consider empirical results in support of the beneficial role of shareholder activism as more reliable than insignificant or opposite results. Consistent with this prediction we document a substantial bias towards publishing (i) higher (rather than lower) and (ii) statistically significant (rather than insignificant) estimates of the impact of shareholder activism. Due to that the pool of estimates in prior empirical literature is biased upwards. The value created by the various forms of shareholder activism corrected for these biases ranges from 0.38 to 3.23% with a median value of 1.94%.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IES Working Paper ; No. 1/2023

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading ; Corporate Finance and Governance: General ; Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Voting; Proxy Contests; Corporate Governance ; Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior: General
• Subject: cumulative abnormal return ; shareholder activism ; eventstudy ; meta-analysis ; model averaging ; publication bias

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bajzika, Josef ; Havráneka, Tomáš ; Iršováa, Zuzana ; Novák, Jiri
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Charles University in Prague, Institute of Economic Studies (IES)
• (where): Prague
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/286330
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET