The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented shock that has required unique responses from many corporations. Understanding how they have responded is of first-order importance for the fields of corporate governance, corporate finance and stewardship. While some insights begin to emerge, others will take time and depend on more complete data sets to become available, such as financial statements and governance records for 2020.

Such data typically comes from annual reports and proxy statements. US companies with a December 31 fiscal year hold their annual meetings in the spring. They typically file their annual reports by the end of March, but in 2019, some 30 percent of the 7,000 reports were filed in April and later. While firms also publish quarterly data, most release comprehensive annual data only 90 days after their fiscal year end, so the earliest date that a large sample of data on US firms will be available is April 2021. These dates may be similar or even later for firms in other countries.

To provide a forum for scholars analysing corporate responses to the pandemic that are informed by comprehensive datasets, The European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the Review of Corporate Finance Studies (RCFS) and the Review of Financial Studies (RFS), is organising an online workshop in 2021 and subsequent physical conference in 2022 on ‘Corporations and Covid-19’. The two events are part of a wider ECGI project funded by Norges Bank Investment Management.

Supported by

Norges Bank Investment Management

Dates

• Online Workshop | 17 June 2021
• Conference | University of Oxford | 2 June 2022