Shareholders
Will “Portfolio Primacy” Throw a Monkey Wrench in Elon Musk’s Plans to Acquire Twitter?
The SEC's definition of fiduciary duty allows institutional shareholders to vote against Elon Musk's Twitter takeover bid thanks to portfolio primacy.
Is the Musk...
Nobel Laureate Oliver Hart on Empowering Twitter’s Shareholders
In an interview with ProMarket, Nobel laureate Oliver Hart explains why broadening our perspective on fiduciary duty beyond maximizing shareholder wealth could empower individual...
Are Large Institutional Investors Actually Effective in Getting Companies to Reduce Their CO2 Emissions?
Large institutional investors have been accused of not doing
enough to reduce CO2 emissions. However, a new study finds that firms like
BlackRock, Vanguard, and State...
President-Elect Joe Biden and the Real Lessons of DuPont
Simply talking corporate America into being more responsible is not enough. It may get corporations to talk the talk, but not to walk the...
It is Not Just Small Investors Who Will Be Silenced Thanks to SEC’s New Rules
Shareholder proposals are one of the most effective forms of shareholder voice in corporate America. It is one of the main channels through which...
Beyond Friedman’s Doctrine: The True Purpose of the Business Corporation
The pandemic and the renewed focus on inequality and injustice arising in the wake of the death of George Floyd have accelerated the conversation...
Market Forces Already Address ESG Issues and the Issues Raised by Stakeholder Capitalism
When do market forces push firms toward stakeholder goals, rather than just shareholder goals? When do market forces push firms toward ESG goals? When...
Missing in Today’s Shareholder Value Maximization Credo: The Shareholders
Today’s corporate world is very different from the one Milton Friedman wrote in. In a world where the question of whether managers should only...
Serving Shareholders Doesn’t Mean Putting Profit Above All Else
The time has come for companies, economists, and society to abandon the argument that the only responsibility of business is to maximize profits.
Editor’s note:...
Friedman’s Principle, 50 Years Later
In the mid-1980s, Milton Friedman’s view that the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits became dominant in business and academia....
