EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Ballot order effects in independent director elections

Tanja Artiga Gonzalez, Paul Calluzzo and Georg Granic

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 2023, vol. 39, issue C

Abstract: Using a sample of individual mutual voting records, we examine ballot order effects in independent director elections. Our results show that down-ballot directors receive considerably less opposition from shareholders. This result holds in a sample where directors are positioned alphabetically on the proxy ballot, and, thus unrelated to the directors’ ability or position on the board. We find that the ballot order effect strengthens in settings where the ballot is more complex and shareholders are less attentive. These results suggest that investors, confronted with repeated decision making across multiple proxy votes, are subject to the choice fatigue bias that affects their voting patterns when electing directors. Furthermore, we find that the ballot order effect impacts director career concerns; although down-ballot directors are less likely to receive shareholder opposition, when they are opposed, they are more likely to leave the board. These findings, which document a systematic bias in the proxy voting process, are relevant to regulators and practitioners given the impact proxy voting has on firm governance.

Keywords: Ballot order; Choice fatigue; Decision fatigue; Proxy voting; ISS recommendations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635023000497

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:39:y:2023:i:c:s2214635023000497

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2023.100835

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance is currently edited by Michael Dowling and Jürgen Huber

More articles in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-23
Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:39:y:2023:i:c:s2214635023000497