Exit vs. Voice
We study the relative effectiveness of exit (divestment and boycott) and voice (engagement) strategies in promoting socially desirable outcomes in companies. We show that in a competitive world exit is less effective than voice in pushing firms to act in a socially responsible manner. Furthermore, we demonstrate that individual incentives to join an exit strategy are not necessarily aligned with social incentives, whereas they are when well-diversified investors are allowed to express their voice. We discuss what social and legal considerations might sometimes make exit preferable to voice.
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Copy CitationEleonora Broccardo, Oliver D. Hart, and Luigi Zingales, "Exit vs. Voice," NBER Working Paper 27710 (2020), https://doi.org/10.3386/w27710.
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