Proxy advisory firms are independent, for-profit consulting companies that provide voting recommendations to individual and institutional investors. Research shows that these firms have significant influence on voting outcomes. Given this influence, it is important that investors ensure that the...

Individual investors are active participants in the shareholder resolution process, filing approximately one quarter of the total number of shareholder resolutions voted on each year. Their activism, however, is controversial. Critics contend that the large number of resolutions filed each year...

This paper examines the economic consequences of institutional investors outsourcing research and voting decisions in public company elections to proxy advisory firms. We investigate the implications of these decisions in the context of shareholder say-on-pay voting required in 2011 under the...

Institutional investors are highly dissatisfied with the quality of information that they receive about corporate governance policies and practices in the annual proxy. Across the board, they want proxies to be shorter, more concise, more candid, and less legal. The largest complaint involves...