Roy Shapira

Roy Shapira Photo

Roy Shapira

S.J.D. Candidate

Clark Byse Fellow

John M. Olin Corporate Governance Fellow

rshapira at sjd.law.harvard.edu

 

Dissertation

“Corporate Philanthropy and other ‘Non-Maximizing’ Corporate Behaviors”

In traditional models, business corporations are supposed to strictly maximize profits. My dissertation tries to shed light on exceptions to the rule: corporate behaviors which are not strictly profit-maximizing. The extreme example for such behaviors is corporate philanthropy: charitable contributions to some non-related third-party. Specifically, the dissertation is trying to shift the focus from the traditional “buying-goodwill” explanation (i.e., companies engage in pro-social sacrifices because stakeholders are willing to pay more for corporate goodness) to a signaling explanation (i.e., pro-social sacrifices mitigate asymmetric information about a firm’s fundamentals). The implications for focusing on the informational (rather than just emotional/cognitive) aspects of cooperative corporate behavior are then sketched: the new perspectives allows us to understand better concepts like reputation formation, corporate culture and corporate political influence; as well as pointing towards some policy implications (e.g., strengthening the case for introducing mandatory disclosure requirements).

Fields of Research and Supervisors

  • Comparative Corporate Governance with Professor Mark Roe, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
  • Corporate Finance with Professor Lucian Bebchuk, Harvard Law School
  • Laws, Markets and Morals in the Commercial Context with Professor Robert Clark, Harvard Law School

Additional Research Interests

  • Corporate Governance
  • Economic Analysis of Law
  • Social Psychology’s Applications to Commercial Law (e.g., Group Behavior and Corporate Governance)
  • Sociobiology’s Applications to Commercial Law (e.g., Cooperative Corporate Behavior)

Education

  • Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2009-Present
  • Harvard Law School, LL.M. Program 2008-2009
  • IDC, Israel, LL.M. 2006
  • IDC, Israel, LL.B., BA. 2005

Academic Appointments and Fellowships

  • Harvard University, Adjunct Lecturer (Economics), 2010-Present
  • John M. Olin Fellow and Fellow of the Program on Corporate governance, 2009-Present
  • Harvard Law School Graduate Program Fellow, Perspectives TA, 2010-Present
  • Harvard Law School Graduate Program Fellow, Writing Workshop TA, 2010-2012
  • Harvard Law School Graduate Program Fellow, LL.M. Advisor, 2009-2010

Representative Publications

Last Updated: August 22, 2012

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