Research

Working papers

1. Institutional Ownership Overstates Voting Power: The Allocation of Voting Authority, with Tao Li

2. Foreign Limited Partner Investments in Private Funds: Investment Committee Decision Making and Realized Performance, with Guy Lakan and Yishay Yafeh

   • Honourable Mention, International Centre for Pension Management Research Award, 2025

3. The Proxy Voting Choice Revolution, with Tao Li, Dorothy Lund, and Zikui Pan

4. Did ERISA's prudent man rule change the pricing of dividend omitting firms?, with J.B. Heaton, 1998

5. Explaining the Underperformance of Initial Public Offerings: A Cumulative Prospect Theory Approach, with J.B. Heaton, 1996

Publications

1. Hedge Fund Activism: Influence, Control, and Corporate Governance, with Wei Jiang and Minghao Wu, forthcoming in B. Espen Eckbo (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Corporate Finance, Vol. 2: Corporate Takeovers and the Market for Corporate Control, Elsevier, 2026

2. Flows, Financing Decisions, and Institutional Ownership of the U.S. Equity Market, with Dorothy Lund and Lin Zhao, Journal of Corporation Law 51(2), 2026

3. Shareholder Monitoring Through Voting: New Evidence from Proxy Contests, with Wei Jiang, Tao Li, and James Pinnington, Review of Financial Studies 37(2), 2024

   • Aberdeen Standard Investments Prize for the best paper in the ECGI Finance Working Paper Series, 2020

4. Corporate Governance Implications of the Growth in Indexing, with Nadya Malenko and Andrey Malenko, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, 2023

5. Governance by Persuasion: Hedge Fund Activism and Market-Based Shareholder Influence, with Wei Jiang and Rongchen Li, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, 2022

6. Retail Shareholder Participation in the Proxy Process: Monitoring, Engagement, and Voting, with Matthew Cain and Jonathon Zytnick, Journal of Financial Economics 144(2), 2022

7. Wolf Pack Activism, with Amil Dasgupta and Richmond Mathews, Management Science 68(8), 2022

8. Validation Capital, with Dorothy Lund and Edward Rock, Texas Law Review 99(7), 2021

9. Brown Assets for the Prudent Investor, with J.B. Heaton, Harvard Business Law Review Online 12, 2021

10. Dancing with Activists, with Lucian Bebchuk, Wei Jiang, and Thomas Keusch, Journal of Financial Economics 137(1), 2020

    • Best Paper Award, FMA Consortium on Activist Investors, Corporate Governance and Hedge Funds, 2015

11. How Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation?, with Wei Jiang, Song Ma, and Xuan Tian, Journal of Financial Economics 130(2), 2018

    • Best Paper Award, Corporate Governance Symposium, John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, University of Delaware, 2016

    • Jensen Prize for the best corporate finance and organizations paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics, 2018

12. Failed Anti-Activist Legislation: The Curious Case of the Brokaw Act, with J.B. Heaton and Jonathan Zandberg, Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law 11(2), 2018

13. The Real Effects of Hedge Fund Activism: Productivity, Asset Allocation, and Labor Outcomes, with Wei Jiang and Hyunseob Kim, Review of Financial Studies 28(10), 2015

    • Barclays Global Investors Michael Brennan Award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies, 2016

14. The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism, with Lucian Bebchuk and Wei Jiang, Columbia Law Review 115(5), 2015

15. Recent Advances in Research on Hedge Fund Activism: Value Creation and Identification, with Wei Jiang and Hyunseob Kim, Annual Review of Financial Economics 7, 2015

16. Event Studies in Securities Litigation: Low Power, Confounding Effects, and Bias, with J.B. Heaton, Washington University Law Review 93(2), 2015

17. Pre-Disclosure Accumulations by Activist Investors: Evidence and Policy, with Lucian Bebchuk, Robert Jackson, and Wei Jiang, Journal of Corporation Law 39, 2013

18. Hedge Fund Activism, with Wei Jiang and Hyunseob Kim, Chapter 7 in Research Handbook on Hedge Funds, Private Equity and Alternative Investments, ed. Phoebus Athanassiou, 2012

19. Empty Voting and the Efficiency of Corporate Governance, with Richmond Mathews, Journal of Financial Economics 99(2), 2011

20. Hedge Fund Activism: A Review, with Wei Jiang and Hyunseob Kim, Foundations and Trends in Finance 4(3), 2010

21. The Limits of the Limits of Arbitrage, with J.B. Heaton and Si Li, Review of Finance 14, 2010

    • Runner-up, Deutsche Bank Best Paper Prize, Review of Finance, 2010

22. Activist Arbitrage: A Study of Open-Ending Attempts of Closed-End Funds, with Michael Bradley, Itay Goldstein, and Wei Jiang, Journal of Financial Economics 95(1), 2010

23. The Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle: Time Trend or Speculative Episodes?, with Michael Brandt, John Graham, and Alok Kumar, Review of Financial Studies 23(2), 2010

24. Evidence on the Tradeoff between Risk and Return for IPO and SEO Firms, with Roni Michaely, Michael Roberts, and Rebecca Zarutskie, Financial Management 38(2), 2009

25. Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance, with Wei Jiang, Frank Partnoy, and Randall Thomas, Journal of Finance 63(4), 2008

    • Finalist, Brattle Prize, Journal of Finance, 2008

    • INQUIRE UK Annual Best Paper Prize, 2007

    • Roger F. Murray Prize (2nd place), Q Group, 2007

    • Chicago Quantitative Alliance Annual Academic Competition, 2nd prize, 2007

26. The Returns to Hedge Fund Activism, with Wei Jiang, Frank Partnoy, and Randall Thomas, Financial Analysts Journal 64(6), 2008

27. Managerial Response to the May 2003 Dividend Tax Cut, with John Graham, Campbell Harvey, and Roni Michaely, Financial Management 37(4), 2008

28. The Effect of the May 2003 Dividend Tax Cut on Corporate Dividend Policy: Empirical and Survey Evidence, with John Graham, Campbell Harvey, and Roni Michaely, National Tax Journal 61(3), 2008

29. Payout Policy in the 21st Century, with John Graham, Campbell Harvey, and Roni Michaely, Journal of Financial Economics 77(3), 2005

    • Jensen Prize for the best corporate finance paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics, 2005  ·  Survey data

30. Using Expectations to Test Asset Pricing Models, with Reuven Lehavy and Roni Michaely, Financial Management 34(3), 2005

31. The Rational-Behavioral Debate in Financial Economics, with J.B. Heaton and Alexander Rosenberg, Journal of Economic Methodology 11(4), 2004

32. An Empirical Analysis of Analysts' Target Prices: Short Term Informativeness and Long Term Dynamics, with Reuven Lehavy, Journal of Finance 58(5), 2003

    • Nominated for the Smith Breeden Prize, 2003

33. The Role of Lock-ups in Initial Public Offerings, with Paul Gompers, Review of Financial Studies 16(1), 2003

34. Market Indeterminacy, with J.B. Heaton, Journal of Corporation Law 28(4), 2003

35. Competing Theories of Financial Anomalies, with J.B. Heaton, Review of Financial Studies 15(2), 2002

    • Barclays Global Investors Michael Brennan Award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies, 2003

36. Asset Pricing with Heterogeneous Consumers: Empirical Evidence, with George Constantinides and Chris Geczy, Journal of Political Economy 110(4), 2002

37. Inference in Long-Horizon Event Studies: A Bayesian Approach with Application to Initial Public Offerings, Journal of Finance 55(5), 2000

38. Is the Abnormal Return Following Equity Issuances Anomalous?, with Chris Geczy and Paul Gompers, Journal of Financial Economics 56, 2000

39. Myth or Reality? The Long-Run Underperformance of Initial Public Offerings: Evidence from Venture and Non-Venture-Backed Companies, with Paul Gompers, Journal of Finance 52(5), 1997

    • Smith Breeden Prize, Distinguished Paper, Journal of Finance, 1998

Data

The hedge fund activism event data used in the papers above are available to academic researchers on request.