This paper studies the drivers behind the monitoring effectiveness of institutional investors in curbing earnings management in an international setting. We identify three distinct drivers and propose two competing hypotheses: the hometown advantage hypothesis predicts that because of proximity to monitoring information, domestic institutions have a comparative advantage over foreign institutions in deterring earnings management, whereas the global investor hypothesis predicts that foreign institutions have a comparative advantage because of their proclivity toward activism and ability to deploy superior monitoring technologies. Consistent with the hometown advantage hypothesis, in aggregate, domestic, but not foreign, institutional ownership is associated with less earnings management; the monitoring effectiveness of foreign institutions improves as they gain proximity to monitoring information. Consistent with the global investor hypothesis, the monitoring effectiveness of foreign institutions improves in environments of greater agency conflicts or weaker governance controls or when the gap in monitoring technology between foreign and domestic institutions widens. JEL classification: G15; G2; G32; G34; M41

This paper studies the role of institutional investors in influencing corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies by analyzing the relation between institutional ownership and toxic release from facilities to which institutions are geographically proximate. We develop a local preference hypothesis based on the delegated philanthropy and transaction-costs theories. Consistent with the hypothesis, local institutional ownership is negatively related to facility toxic release. The negative relation is stronger for local SRI funds, local public pension funds, and local dedicated institutions. We also find that the relation is more negative in communities that prefer more stringent environmental policies and in communities of greater collective cohesiveness. Local institutional ownership, particularly local ownerships by SRI funds and public pension funds, is positively related to the probability that an ESG proposal is either introduced or withdrawn. The paper sheds light on the drivers behind institutions' ESG engagement and their effectiveness in influencing ESG.

The electronic structure and chemical bonding in the Ta 3 (-) cluster are investigated using photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Photoelectron spectra are obtained for Ta 3 (-) at four photon energies: 532, 355, 266, and 193 nm. While congested spectra are observed at high electron binding energies, several low-lying electronic transitions are well resolved and compared with the theoretical calculations. The electron affinity of Ta 3 is determined to be 1.35 +/- 0.03 eV. Extensive density functional calculations are performed at the B3LYP/Stuttgart +2f1g level to locate the ground-state and low-lying isomers for Ta 3 and Ta 3 (-). The ground-state for the Ta 3 (-) anion is shown to be a quintet ( (5)A 1') with D 3 h symmetry, whereas two nearly isoenergetic states, C 2 v ( (4)A 1) and D 3 h ( (6)A 1'), are found to compete for the ground-state for neutral Ta 3. A detailed molecular orbital analysis is performed to elucidate the chemical boding in Ta 3 (-), which is found to possess multiple d-orbital aromaticity, commensurate with its highly symmetric D 3 h structure.