2024 Working Paper Prizes

BRUSSELS – 7 June 2024. The European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) is delighted to announce the winners of the best papers in the Working Paper Finance and Law Series’ published in 2023.

The 2024 Intesa Sanpaolo Finance Prize of EUR 5,000 has been awarded to Professors Philip Bond (University of Washington) and Doron Levit (University of Washington, ECGI and CEPR) for their paper on: “ESG: A Panacea for Market Power?”  (ECGI Finance Working Paper 947/2023).

The paper explores the implications of moderate vs aggressive ESG policies and how the intensity of ESG policies can affect a firm’s market power and valuation. It shows that only a modest policy of engagement improves market power in input and output markets, while presenting a useful model to address this topical issue, with many novel predictions. 

The 2024 ECGI Law Prize for the Best Paper in the ECGI Law Working Paper Series has been awarded to Curtis J. Milhaupt (Stanford University and ECGI) for his paper: “The (Geo)Politics of Controlling Shareholders” (ECGI Law Working Paper 696/2023).

The paper makes a substantial and novel contribution to the literature on corporate governance and controlling shareholders by analysing how the features of firms with controlling shareholders enhance their geopolitical significance, and by advocating for the study of corporate governance to extend beyond traditional economic analysis to incorporate geopolitical and political-economic dimensions. It highlights how controlling shareholders are significant political players who can influence national and international affairs.

Referring to the awards, Professor Marco Becht, ECGI Executive Director said 

“The winning papers offer valuable insights into the evolving landscape of corporate governance, shedding light on the pivotal roles of ESG considerations in mitigating market power and the complex interplay between controlling shareholders and geopolitical dynamics. The papers make significant contributions to our understanding of market competition and corporate governance.”

The prize was awarded at the 'ECGI Annual Conference' in Brussels on 8 October 2024.