In a study issued by the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, Bebchuk, Cohen, and Ferrell (2009) put forward a corporate governance index – the Entrenchment Index (E-Index). This post provides an update on the considerable influence that the study has had on subsequent research. According to Google Scholar citations data, as of the end of 2020, the study was cited by more than 2,900 research papers; a list of these papers is available here. Furthermore, a review of these research papers has identified more than 1,200 studies that have applied the E-index and used it in their empirical analysis.
A list of 1,260 empirical studies using the E-index in their empirical analysis is available here.
The list of studies applying the E-Index includes empirical studies published in:
- Leading journals in finance such as The Journal of Finance, The Journal of Financial Economics, and The Review of Financial Studies;
- Leading journals in economics such as the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Economics and Statistics;
- Leading journals in law and economics such as the Journal of Law and Economics and Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; and
- Leading journals in accounting, such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, and The Accounting Review.
The Bebchuk, Cohen & Ferrell study was first circulated in 2004 and was published in 2009 in the Review of Financial Studies. The study identified six corporate governance provisions as especially important, demonstrated empirically the significance of these provisions for firm valuation, and put forward an “Entrenchment Index,” the E-Index, based on these six provisions.
The study is available here.
