The Role of Proxy Advisory Firms: Evidence from a Regression-Discontinuity Design
利用断点回归设计，研究发现ISS的负面建议在2010-2011年间使薪酬投票支持率下降25个百分点，表明代理咨询公司对股东投票有显著影响。
Proxy advisory firms have become important players in corporate governance, but the extent of their influence over shareholder votes is debated. We estimate the effect of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommendations on voting outcomes by exploiting exogenous variation in ISS recommendations generated by a cutoff rule in ISS voting guidelines. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that from 2010 to 2011, a negative ISS recommendation on a say-on-pay proposal leads to a 25 percentage point reduction in say-on-pay voting support, suggesting a strong influence over shareholder votes. We also use our setting to examine the informational role of ISS recommendations. Received April 13, 2015; editorial decision June 13, 2016 by Editor Itay Goldstein.