Phantom of the Opera: ETF Shorting and Shareholder Voting
研究发现，ETF做空产生的“幽灵”份额没有投票权，导致标的证券的代理投票减少、券商弃权增加，揭示了ETF做空对股东投票的负面影响。
The short-selling of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) creates “phantom” ETF shares, trading at market prices, with cash flow rights but no associated voting rights. Unlike regular ETF shares backed by underlying securities, which are voted as directed by the ETF sponsor, phantom ETF shares are typically hedged by the underlying basket as part of market-making activities and result in a significant number of sidelined votes of underlying securities. We find that increases in phantom shares for the corresponding underlying securities are associated with decreases in the number of proxy votes cast and increases in broker nonvotes. This paper was accepted by Lukas Schmid, finance. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01567 .