Shareholder activism

Paul Rose and Bernie Sharfman have a new paper that also reviews the economic literature, and concluding that "Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that certain types of offensive shareholder activism lead to an increase in shareholder wealth."

The empirical question, it seems to me, is not a straightforward one - it is difficult to compare firms that activists do target with firms that they do not, and difficult of course to know what would have happened had a firm not been targeted.  I take it that the case against activist shareholders is unimpeachably logical, and very Chicago.  In efficient markets it should not be possible to realize long terms gains through management changes, for the companies targeted would be making said changes anyway.  And for examples of studies along these lines, you can look at this or this case.

via www.theconglomerate.org