This study provides the first large-sample empirical analysis on the characteristics, determinants, and returns from appraisal petitions during 2000-2014. We find that appraisal petitions increase from 2-3% of the eligible M&A deals in the early 2000s to around 25% of such deals in the most...

This is the first comprehensive study of mutual fund voting in proxy contests. Mutual funds tend to vote for dissident nominees at firms with weak operating and financial performance, and when dissidents are hedge funds. Notably, passive funds are more likely to support incumbent management than...

We present the first comprehensive study of mutual fund voting in proxy contests. Among contests where voting takes place, passive funds are ten percentage points less likely than active funds to vote for dissidents. The gap shrinks significantly when accounting for votes withheld from...