Corporations

To Make a Difference, Businesses Must Have a Stake in Social Missions

Despite their promises to change the world for the better and remedy social ills, the truth is that corporations are rarely designed...

There Is a Direct Line from Milton Friedman to Donald Trump’s Assault on Democracy

Milton Friedman believed that corporations have a social responsibility to play within the rules of the game. But corporations aren’t just players...

Corporations Are Governance Mechanisms, Not Shareholder Toys

Milton Friedman’s shareholder credo is simple and catchy but has shaky foundations. Corporate directors and officers are not agents of shareholders and...

Economics, Law and Finance Professors from Major Universities Write to Congress : “Bail Out People Before Large Corporations”

"Bailouts allow investors to keep all the profits in good times without bearing the losses in bad times. Instead, bailouts impose losses on taxpayers, including those...

The Problem With Unicorns: Why Investors Stopped WeWork From Going Public

More and more startups are valued at over $1 billion, even if they have dysfunctional corporate structures and hazardous business models. For tech companies,...

The Business Roundtable CEOs’ Statement: Same Old, Same Old

Despite the media hype about corporate CEOs having abandoned their shareholder value maximization credo, the recent statement from the Business Roundtable contains nothing new...

How Offshoring by Multinational Corporations Contributed to the Decline of US Manufacturing

The offshoring activities of multinational firms explain about one-third of the aggregate decline in US manufacturing employment, according to a new study. Between 1990 and...

Is Lionizing CEOs Dangerous for Society?

In an interview with ProMarket, Open University's Peter Bloom talks about his provocative new book CEO Society and why he believes celebrating corporate CEOs...

The Foundation of Corporate Personhood: A Look at the Charles River Bridge Case of 1837

Some 130 years before Friedman could begin arguing that a corporation’s sole responsibility was to make a profit for its shareholders, Boston’s Charles River...

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LATEST NEWS

Democracy

Elections Hinder Companies’ Access to Credit

Florian Léon, Laurent Weill

A large body of literature has produced uncertain conclusions about how elections affect firms’ access to credit. In a wide-ranging analysis of...

Commentary

How Financial Contracting Could Help the Police Force Manage Its Aims More Effectively

Hamid Mehran

Hamid Mehran proposes funded deferred pay, an incentive structure to mitigate the risk and costs of police misconduct.

Event Notes

Event Notes: “China’s Political Economy” in Review

Andy Shi

The Stigler Center's "China Political Economy" webinar series returns Thursday, February 9. Here's a reminder of what we covered in our first...

Economic History

To Build an Equitable Economy, We Must Understand Capitalism’s Racist Heritage

Elizabeth Kennedy

American capitalism was built on racial exploitation, from the enslavement of Black people to institutionalized discrimination and its structural impact on our...

Industrial Policy

How To Ensure Industrial Policy Promotes Public Over Private Gain

Lenore Palladino

Industrial policy was once so out of fashion that it was jokingly called “the policy that shall not be named.” Now it’s...