Phantom of the Opera: ETF Shorting and Shareholder Voting

The authors are thankful for helpful feedback from Vikas Agarwal, Ramin Baghai, Lucian Bebchuk, Utpal Bhattacharya, Patrick Bolton, Alon Brav, Anna Calamia, James Corah, Stephen Davis, Theodosios Dimopoulos, Ludwig Dobmeier, Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, Daniel Ferreira, Fabrizio Ferri, Abhishek Ganguly, Mariassunta Giannetti, Itay Goldstein, Jeffrey Gordon, Todd Gormley, Umit Gurun, Edith Hotchkiss, Peter Feldhütter, Slava Fos, Scott Hirst, Henry Hu, Zsuzsa Reka Huszar, Peter Iliev, Dusan Isakov, Wei Jiang, Hayne Leland, Michelle Lowry, Jon Lukomnik, Kevin Lyman, Ananth Madhavan, Nadya Malenko, Ron Masulis, John Matsusaka, Daniel Metzger, Clemens Otto, Emre Özdenören, Gianpaolo Parise, Lin Peng, Sugata Ray, Adam Reed, Edward Rock, Usha Rodrigues, Pedro Saffi, Laura Starks, Trang Thai, Karin Thorburn, Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden, Raman Uppal, David Yermack, Kathy Yuan, Rafael Zambrana, and Luigi Zingales as well as seminar participants at Auburn University, Boston College, Brigham Young University, Cambridge University, École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris Europe, Florida State University, Lehigh University, Michigan State University, Paris Dauphine University, University of Alabama, University of Washington, University of Turin, and University of Virginia. The authors also benefited from comments by participants at the 2023 John Maynard Keynes Fellowship Lectures, 2022 Securities Finance Forum, 2021 European Investment Forum, 2021 International Corporate Governance Society Conference, 2021 İstanbul Finance Seminar Series, 2021 World Finance & Banking Symposium, 2020 American Finance Association Meeting, 2020 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Finance Association, 2020 Financial Management Association Meeting, 2020 Inquire UK Webinar Series, 2020 Virtual Asset Management Seminar Series, 2019 4nations cup, 2019 Cambridge-Lausanne Exchange Workshop, 2019 Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance in the City Workshop, 2019 European Finance Association Conference, 2019 European Financial Management Association Conference, 2019 Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment Conference, 2019 London Quant Group Autumn Seminar, 2019 Paris Financial Management Conference, Seventh Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation, 12th Annual Hedge Fund Research Conference, 17th Paris December Finance Meeting, 27th Finance Forum, International Macroeconomics and Finance Workshop in Leukerbad, Journal of Financial Intermediation-Nova School of Business and Economics Conference on Financial Intermediation and Corporate Finance, Summer Finance Workshop at University of Dayton, and Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investor Activism at Stockholm School of Economics. The authors are grateful for prizes from the European Financial Management Association and the 4nations cup. O. Karakaş gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance and the J.M. Keynes Fellowship.