Dominik Jurek
TOPIC: Can firms actively manage their investors by timing repurchases to institutional sales pressure? To answer this, I distinguish mutual funds by revealed support for activist campaigns and measure if sales pressure due to large asset outflows leads to differential repurchase timing of firms. I find that mutual fund sales pressure decreases investor horizon and firms respond to this by increasing repurchases when activism friendly mutual funds have a shorter horizon, while decreasing repurchases when other funds are showing sales induced increased turnover. I thus provide empirical evidence on the open question of the link between liquidity and governance, and how CEOs can use repurchases to align investors to their interests. This is still a very early stage research project, any comments are welcome!