The Retail Investor Vote: Mobilizing Rationally Apathetic Shareholders to Preserve or Challenge the Board's Presumption of Authority

Abstract:     
The article proposes the implementation of the RIVI (“Retail Investor Voting Instructions”) to mobilize retail investors to vote in corporate elections. The author argues that current retail-investor voting has an adverse effect on our capital markets because it is uninformed. In this article, the author proposes the creation of the RIVI to promote more robust and informed retail-investor voting, which will, in turn, contribute to a more efficient balance between board accountability and authority in public companies.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 57

Keywords: shareholders, shareholder voting, corporate governance, board of directors, authority, accountability, retail investors, capital markets

JEL Classification: G14, G18, G30, G34, G38

Accepted Paper Series