Dr. Roy Shapira, Stigler Center, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Fellow and Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) faculty member, has published “Mandatory Arbitration and the Market for Reputation,” Boston University Law Review, Vol. 99 (forthcoming). In his journal article, Dr. Shapira examines some of the potential market effects of using mandatory arbitration for shareholder claims.
The abstract states:
Is mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims desirable? With the blessing of the Supreme Court, mandatory arbitration provisions with class action waivers have become common in contract, consumer, and labor law. Policymakers now consider importing this trend to corporate and securities laws as well. The existing debate centers around consent and compensation: Can shareholders be held to consent to arbitration provisions in the company’s corporate governance documents? Are shareholders better off with arbitration, given that litigation currently offers them very little compensation (with high fees)? This Article adopts a different, information-production perspective. It examines how the choice between litigation and arbitration affects the effectiveness of market discipline. Litigation, regardless of the legal outcomes, produces a positive externality: information on corporate behavior. Internal memos, emails, spreadsheets, and transcripts that are exposed in the process give us a glimpse into how the company-in-question is ran. This information helps outside observers reassess their willingness to do business with the parties to the dispute. In other words, litigation shapes the reputations of companies and businesspersons. By shifting from litigation to arbitration, we are likely to save administrative costs, but lose some of the effectiveness of reputational deterrence. While adopting a mandatory arbitration provision can be desirable for a given company, the ex ante effects of allowing such provisions would be overall detrimental to the market.
This and other research papers written by Dr. Shapira are available for download from the Social Science Research Network.
Photo by: Zach Lucero on Unsplash
