Leveraging as a quasi-natural experiment the staggered passage of universal demand laws, which raise the difficulty of shareholder lawsuits, we examine the effect of shareholder litigation rights on ESG controversies. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that an exogenous decline in...

Exploiting an exogenous shock that diminishes the shareholder litigation risk for certain firms, we examine the effect of litigation risk on corporate social responsibility. In particular, we take advantage of an unexpected ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court that raised the difficulty of...