A new study reveals both the potential biases in the proxy advisory industry and how a new entrant can help mitigate conflicts of interest.
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“Current Populist Discontent Seems Mainly Driven by a Fear of Change and Uncertainty”
In the final installment of ProMarket’s interview series on the economic theory of the firm, we ask Princeton University professor Alan Blinder and University of Mannheim President Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden about the role of corporations and governments in the market.
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Experts: Financial Rewards and Protections Are the Best Way to Incentivize Whistleblowers
Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center: “If your white-collar crime detection program is based on nice people having high moral values, corruption will flourish.”
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Wells Fargo and the Failure of Boards and Regulators
Two new reports concerning the Wells Fargo scandal suggest that the bank’s senior management, its board of directors, and the regulators all knew about the bank’s toxic practices, yet for years did nothing to stop them.
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Study: Women in Finance Are Punished More Severely – Especially When Their Boss Is a Man
A new Stigler Center paper shows the extent of sexism in the financial industry: although male financial advisers are three times as likely to engage in misconduct and twice as likely to be repeat offenders, women are far more likely to be punished for it.
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PwC and the Oscars: When Auditors Take Investors to La La Land
PwC suffered an enormous blow to its reputation following the Oscars because the ceremony is highly visible and the failure was simple to understand. But the accounting giant has experienced many blunders in the last decade that, despite being far more significant, left its reputation unscathed.
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“The Ability of Companies to Subvert the Operating Rules for the Market is a Deep, Systematic, Durable Force”
In this installment of ProMarket’s new interview series, we ask Harvard Business School professor Herman “Dutch” Leonard about the involvement of corporations in politics and his thoughts on the Trump presidency. “Globalization, rent-seeking, and regulatory capture are not unrelated to one another.”
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“Under President Trump and the Republican Congress, Banks Will Have Even More Ability to Write Regulations That Favor Them”
In this installment of ProMarket’s new interview series on the economic theory of the firm, we ask University of Connecticut law professor and blogger James Kwak if the existing theory should be modified. “Corporations tend to favor policies that allow greater concentration and reduce constraints on their behavior.”
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Bengt Holmstrom: “I’m More Concerned About the Economic Power of the Most Valuable Companies Than Their Political Power”
In this installment of ProMarket’s new interview series, Nobel laureate Bengt Holmstrom says “this may be the right time to look at political engagement by corporations” and discusses the recent wave of populist discontent. “It is clearly a time of change and we will be forced to rethink how we can reaffirm our commitment to democracy.”
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“We Are Arrogant – We hold On to Our Old Beliefs on the Gains of Trade”: ProMarket Interviews Bernard Yeung, Part 3
The third and final part of ProMarket’s interview with Bernard Yeung, Dean of the National University of Singapore’s business school and one of the predominantly non-U.S.-born economists who laid the foundations for the scientific research of economic power concentration.
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Theory of the Firm Interview Series: John Van Reenen
The second installment in ProMarket’s new interview series: Should the economic theory of the firm be modified? If so, how? In this installment, we ask MIT’s John Van Reenen. “Since markets in the U.S. and other advanced countries have become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of “superstar” firms, the ability of such firms to influence market rules has also strengthened.”
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Interview Series: How Incomplete is the Theory of the Firm? Q&A with Daniel Carpenter
Should the economic theory of the firm be modified? If so, how? In March, the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Oxford University will organize a conference to answer these questions and more. Ahead of the conference, we are launching an interview series with influential scholars in the field. In the first installment, Daniel Carpenter of Harvard University answers our questions: “the profitability and survival prospects of many firms in the coming years will depend heavily, in a polarized environment, on the political skills of managers.”
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