International spillovers of corporate scandal: evidence from the Harvey Weinstein event

Abstract

Exploiting a representative survey which overlapped with the revelation of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, we firstly discover that the scandal in the United States causally increased the preference for gender equality in Italy. Consistent with prospect theory, we then show that firms in the entertainment industry experienced excess loss in share value compared to their peers in other industries immediately following the revelation of the scandal. Further analyses suggest that this value impact is stronger for firms with a higher percentage of women executives. Our results are thus relevant for institutional investors holding a global portfolio.