Est. 2024 · Southern Methodist University · Dallas, Texas
Corporate governance research combining empirical methods from finance with doctrinal analysis from corporate law.
Featured research
A companion site to Read the Fine Print, published May 5, 2026 in the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog. The analysis covers an event-study battery of 54 statistical tests across 22 specifications, a primary-source coalition arithmetic walkthrough of the institutional vote, and a doctrinal examination of the TBOC opt-ins ExxonMobil declined.
The fine print, the work concluded, does not support the disenfranchisement thesis. It refutes it.
Research verticals
Each vertical is an active research program with its own dataset, replication kit, and per-firm dossiers. Verticals come online as their data infrastructure matures.
Active research
Every publicly-traded U.S. firm changing its state of incorporation in the post-Tornetta wave. Event-study battery, doctrinal explainers, coalition arithmetic, and per-firm publication subsites for the 22-firm Texas universe.
Reference primer on the law and economics of corporate governance — fiduciary duties, controlling shareholders, board structure, the business-judgment rule, and the doctrinal framework that underlies every vertical in the Initiative.
A century of state corporate-law competition — the rise of Delaware, the post-1980s race to the top vs. race to the bottom debate, and the post-2024 Texas challenge. Doctrinal evolution, jurisdictional incentives, and the modern landscape.
In development
Tracking the Texas Business Court since its September 2024 launch under SB 27. Case docket, judges' biographies, key-opinion explainers, and jurisdictional-threshold analysis.
14a-8 proposal traffic across the Russell 3000. Sub-trackers for environmental, social, governance, executive-compensation, and structural proposals. Vote outcomes and no-action letter indexes.
ISS and Glass Lewis recommendation patterns and post-recommendation vote outcomes — director elections, say-on-pay, M&A, and bylaw/charter amendments. Methodology benchmarks and dissent-rate trackers.
State corporate-statute evolution — DGCL amendments (including the March 2025 SB 21 supersession of Tornetta), TBOC amendments (SB 29, SB 1057), Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 78, and federal corporate-governance legislation.
Publications
Working papers, law-review pieces, and peer-reviewed publications from SMU CGI researchers.
Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog · cited by ExxonMobil in its DEFA14A solicitation
An empirical and doctrinal examination of the May 27, 2026 ExxonMobil shareholder vote on the NJ → TX redomiciliation. The fine print does not support the disenfranchisement thesis — it refutes it.
Working paper, SMU Corporate Governance Initiative
Cohort-level event study of the post-Tornetta reincorporation wave, with cross-sectional analysis of controller ownership concentration, dual-class structure, and exchange-listing variation.
Events & convenings
SMU CGI hosts an annual forum and a Spring conference focused on the intersection of corporate law, capital markets, and empirical research.
Annual forum
SMU Cox's signature annual gathering on corporate governance and capital markets, hosted by Shane Goodwin. Brings together academics, regulators, institutional investors, and corporate practitioners around the year's most pressing governance questions.
Forum & registration →Spring 2026
A research conference convening empirical corporate-finance and corporate-governance work in progress, with sessions on state competition, shareholder activism, and the evolving role of proxy advisors.
Details & program →About
The SMU Corporate Governance Initiative is a research program based jointly at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business and Dedman School of Law. Our work combines empirical methods from finance with doctrinal analysis from corporate law to examine how state corporate-law competition shapes firm decisions, shareholder outcomes, and the broader market for governance.
The Initiative publishes working papers, law-review articles, and shorter pieces in venues such as the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. Our datasets and replication kits are open and re-runnable. All research is published under the SMU CGI imprint with full source code, primary citations, and pre-registration discipline.
The Initiative is independent: all interpretations are the authors' own and do not represent the positions of Southern Methodist University or any of its schools.