Missing the target why stock market short-termism is not the problem / Mark J. Roe.
| Author/creator | Roe, Mark J., 1951- |
| Other author | Oxford University Press. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] |
| Description | viii, 186 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Oxford Scholarship Online |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction : How big is the problem of stock-market-driven short-termism? -- Looking for stock-market-driven short-termism's impact on the economy. The short-term problem perceived ; Looking for the economy-wide impact ; Social costs from stock-market-driven corporate short-termism? ; The heavy cost of misdiagnosis : missing the targets -- Analyzing the stock market's impact. Concept and evidence for stock-market-driven short-termism ; Concept and evidence against stock-market-driven short-termism ; Evaluating the firm-level short-termism evidence -- The proposed solutions' limited efficacy - and their costs. Cures and their limits : insulating executives from financial markets ; Cures and their limits : taxing and regulating financial markets -- The politics of the corporate short-termism controversy. Confusing short-termism with accelerating technological change ; Short-termism as popular narrative : connotation, category confusion, and confirmation ; Political support from inside the corporation : executives and employees ; Political support outside the corporation : popular opinion vs. Wall Street -- Conclusion. |
| Abstract | Stock-market-driven short-termism is crippling the US economy, according to legal, judicial, and media thinking. Firms forgo the R & D they need, cut capital spending, and buy back their own stock so feverishly that they starve themselves of cash. The stock market is the primary cause: directors and managers cannot manage for the long-term when their shareholders furiously trade their companies' stocks, they cannot invest enough when stockholders demand rising quarterly profits, they must slash R & D when investors demand that precious cash be used to buy back stock, and they cannot even strategize about the long-term when shareholder activists demand immediate results. The stock market's short-termism is also blamed for environmental degradation, for contributing to global warming, and for employee mistreatment. This book shows, however, that the purported ills emanating from stock-market short-termism are either not shown, likely to minor, demonstrably false, or due to other pernicious economic causes. The social costs attributed to corporate short-termsim - environmental degradation, mistreatment of stakeholders, risking climate catastrophe - emanate more from selfishness than from distorted time horizons, as readers shall see. Moreover, public and policymaker obsession with stock-market short-termism as upsetting the economy and settled arrangements is explained more by dissatisfaction with the rapidity of technological change, the increasing uncertainty and instability of the workplace, and a dissatisfaction with overall economic arrangements. Lawmakers and pundits can readily miss more likely causes of the underlying issues - like how best to push forward US R & D - by mistakenly aiming at stock-market short-termism. After considering what the evidence tells us, this book considers what political and social reasons could explain the issue's prominence. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Biographical note | Mark J. Roe is the David Berg Professor of Corporate Law at Harvard Law School. His research focuses on corporate structures and how they relate to politics, interest groups, and popular opinions of the corporation. |
| Issued in other form | Electronic version: Roe, Mark J., 1951- Missing the target. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] 9780197625644 |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2023288185 |
| ISBN | 9780197625620 (hardcover) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |