Blockholders

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My work on blockholders (large shareholders) studies how blockholders play a critical role in corporate governance due to their large stakes – alleviating concerns on the “separation of ownership and control” and the “ownerless corporation”. In particular, I show how blockholders can exert governance not only through “voice” (engaging with companies) but also “exit” (voting with their feet). Contrary to conventional wisdom, exit is a governance mechanism in itself, not the antithesis of governance, and short-term exit can encourage long-term behavior by firms.

Surveys

  • Survey in Annual Review of Financial Economics (briefer) (Edmans 2014)
  • Chapter for Handbook of Corporate Governance (more extensive, containing hand-collected data on blockholders and a unifying model) (Edmans, Holderness 2017)

Theory

Empirics