The Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal energized the #MeToo movement and triggered changes in corporate cultures, which in turn has impacted capital markets, according to a new paper.

Excess returns: The authors find that firms with a nonsexist corporate culture (proxied by having women among the five highest-paid executives) earn excess returns of 1.3% relative to firms without female top executives. “These returns are driven by changes in investor preferences toward firms with a nonsexist culture,” says the paper’s abstract. “Institutional ownership increases in firms with a nonsexist culture after the Weinstein/#MeToo events, particularly for investors with larger holdings and investors with a lower ESG focus ex ante.”

The paper, “Sexism, Culture, and Firm Value: Evidence From the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and the #MeToo Movement,” is one of the recent papers of note mentioned in the new “Research Update” section in the December issue of Business Valuation Update.