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Assuming that it's just the social shame model, should we consider this intervention acceptable?
Assuming we accept it, will it actually fix the problem it's purportedly aimed at?
Assuming it doesn't fix the problem, what's the likely next steps?
Well "just" a social shame model is underselling it. Social shame is arguably more effective than a law or regulation in many cases.
But it does depend on the people doing the shaming or in this case investing. Do they prefer to invest in companies that hit the target or ones who say this target is stupid (though actually i think this will not be very common, see below) My guess is it won't be particularly effective because profitable companies will still get invested in, because there will be plenty of investors who think thats the most important thing.
I suspect most companies won't hit the target , but will also not say this is stupid. Their explanation will be, we tried, we are commited to diversity and will continue to search for blah blah. Something with plausible deniability.
What will happen after? Well i think it depends on why they stopped short of a mandate, was it due to investor push back? Or they thought it wouldn't hold up legally? Or the Exchange themselves wouldn't go any further (as at least it can be framed as only giving investors nore information). I don"t know enough about that to make a good prediction.
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