Stakeholder Activism and Foreign Firm Exit From Russia in 2022

We study foreign firm exit from Russia following the 2022 offensive in Ukraine. Using administrative data on the universe of equity ownership in Russia we find that Western-owned firms that exited Russia in 2022 accounted for 1.5%, 3.0%, and 3.6% of capital stock, revenues, and wage bill in 2021, respectively. Exiting firms comprised almost 1/4 of total Western firm output in Russia. In a triple difference design we show that stakeholder activism contributed to firm exit. Inclusion of a Western company on the Yale School of Management list of companies with exposure to Russia increased probability of its exit by 13.2 p.p. (+110.9% in relation to pre-conflict exit rate)