2025 SCHEDULE 

Abstract: Does institutional investors’ engagement mitigate labor conflict? Using the sample from 2012-2019, we find evidence that institutional investors, especially active investors, ‘voice’ to mitigate the labor conflict. This engagement results from reduced labor productivity and firm value caused by labor conflict. Further analyses reveal that the union and public pension funds drive this activism reflected in an increase in shareholder proposals and proxy contests. These results are robust to the external validity of labor conflict measures and the endogeneity concerns. Overall, our findings suggest that institutional investors engage to mitigate labor conflict when the latter impacts the firm’s business.