Free-Riders and Underdogs: Participation in Corporate Voting

Free-Riders and Underdogs: Participation in Corporate Voting

Konstantinos Zachariadis, Dragana Cvijanović, Moqi Groen-Xu

Series number :

Serial Number: 
649/2020

Date posted :

January 20 2020

Last revised :

April 16 2020
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • voting participation • 
  • Corporate governance • 
  • shareholder proposals • 
  • Institutional ownership • 
  • structural estimation • 
  • counterfactuals

Voting outcomes can differ from underlying preferences due to strategic selection into voting. One explanation for such selection effects is lower participation of shareholders with popular preferences (free-rider effect) relative to those with unpopular preferences (underdog effect).

We illustrate these effects in a rational choice model in which the voting participation decision depends on the probability of being pivotal and the costs and benefits of voting. Based on the model, we structurally estimate unobservable shareholder preferences. Using US data, we show that strategic selection into voting is relevant: 13% of voting outcomes in governance shareholder proposals represent only the minority.

Authors

Real name:
Dragana Cvijanović
Dr.
Real name:
Moqi Groen-Xu
London School of Economics