Policy & Practice

This page contains talks and articles grounded in academic research but presented in a non-technical manner for policymakers, practitioners, and the general public.

Articles

Policy Consultations

Response to FCA’s Consultation on diversity and inclusion (September 2021)
Call for Reflection on European Commission’s consultation on sustainable corporate governance (April 2021)
Response to FRC’s Consultation on corporate reporting on how stakeholder outcomes should be part of the Business Report, not siloed into a Public Interest Report (November 2020)
Response to European Commission’s study on sustainable corporate governance, highlighting how shareholder value is an inherently long-term concept, and attempts to regulate stakeholder capitalism may either erode managerial accountability or lead to a focus on quantitative metrics (October 2020)
Response to FRC’s Pre-Consultation on the Stewardship Code, on the importance of exit/trading as a governance mechanism (February 2019)
Response to the FRC/FCA Joint Consultation on a Regulatory Framework for Stewardship, clarifying the academic evidence on shareholder engagement (February 2019)
Written evidence to House of Commons Executive Pay Inquiry advocating simple, transparent, and long-term schemes (May 2018)
Response to FRC’s Pre-Consultation on the Corporate Governance Code, addressing diversity (February 2018)
Letter to SEC on why they should not force pay ratio disclosure (August 2017)
Response to Financial Conduct Authority’s discussion paper on the primary markets landscape. Covers dual-class shares, liquidity, and short-term trading (April 2017)
Response to government’s Green Paper on Industrial Strategy, on the importance of financial literacy (Feburary 2017)
Response to government’s Green Paper on Corporate Governance. Covers complexity and horizon of incentives, pay ratios, say-on-pay, stakeholder engagement, and the importance of large shareholders (blockholders) (February 2017)
Written evidence to House of Commons Corporate Governance Inquiry on CEO pay, workers on boards, shareholder vs. stakeholder maximisation (October 2016)
Oral testimony in House of Commons (transcript) (November 2016)
Supplementary written evidence: short-term trading, dividends and repurchases are not bad for society; further evidence on workers on boards (December 2016)

Economia Column

I was the guest columnist for Economia, the magazine of the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, for 2019. Here are my articles:

  1. Finding the Purpose of Your Business
  2. The Real Problem with Executive Pay
  3. Kodak and the Importance of Proactive Governance
  4. The Power of Different Points of View (on shareholder activism)
  5. Do Buybacks Really Destroy Long-Term Value?
  6. The Danger of Taking Evidence at Face Value
  7. Why Short-Term Trading Can Be Long-Term Stewardship