The SAFE Visitors Program organizes and cordially invites you to attend a 9-hour PhD-level mini-course on
Institutional Investors’ Activism
Prof. Andrew Ellul, PhD
Professor of Finance and Fred T. Greene Chair in Finance
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
The nature of equity ownership in the U.S. and Europe has been impacted significantly by the impressive growth experienced by the asset management industry. Nowadays the majority of blockholders in publicly traded firms are institutional investors, such as mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, etc. that are agents acting on behalf of final investors providing capital. As a result of the big presence of such investors, there is now a multi-layered agency problem in corporate governance. In this course we will review the recent developments in the empirical literature on institutional investors (as a group, and the different types of investors such as hedge funds and mutual funds) on firm decisions, ranging from corporate governance to physical and human capital investments. We will start by reviewing the main theories to set the scene for the empirical work. After setting the theoretical background we will move to discuss the different empirical methodologies used to investigate how different types of institutional investors interact with management and affect several firm decisions and the eventual impact on firm valuations. We will then discuss the main results, controversies about these results, and their implications for regulation.
Further details.
25 October, 12 p.m. – 3 p.m., House of Finance, room HoF 1.28
27 October, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., House of Finance, room HoF 1.28
28 October, 12 p.m. – 3 p.m., House of Finance, room HoF 1.28
Prof. Ellul will also give a talk on "Loan Guarantees, Bank Lending and Credit Risk Reallocation"
Please note that registration for the course is required. The course is free of charge.