Mohamed Khimji has won a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant.
Mohamed Khimji, Queen’s University
Khimji, who is the David Allgood Professor of Business Law at Queen’s University, will receive $155,305 over five years to support his work as principal investigator on a project titled "Shareholder Democracy in Public Corporations — An Empirical and Economic Analysis.”
The study is designed to provide a thorough empirical analysis of shareholder democracy as a fundamental accountability mechanism in corporate governance. His co-investigator is Christopher C. Nicholls, the W. Geoff Beattie Chair in Corporate Law at Western University.
“I think it’s fair to say that shareholder democracy is the key issue in corporate governance right now,” said Khimji.
“While there appears to have been a surge in shareholder engagement in the governance of public corporations in recent decades, there is a lack of empirical data on how shareholder voting operates in practice and also on the extent, types and effectiveness of shareholder engagements. Thanks to SSHRC, this important study is an exciting opportunity to fill that gap.”
Khimji intends to spend most of the funding to hire students, although some will be used to interview key stakeholders in shareholder voting systems.
Besides interviews, the findings of the study will be based on generated and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data about shareholder participation in corporate decision- and policy-making. The findings of the study are designed to facilitate more informed law reforms going forward.
