For Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose

A Global Online Seminar Series from the editors of the ECGI Working Paper Series

For Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose

  • 14 September 2020

The second seminar in the ECGI Spotlight Series took place on 14 September 2020 at 16:00 CEST (10:00 EDT).

You can download Edward Rock's presentation slides here.

You can download the working paper here.

ABOUT THIS EVENT

A high profile public debate is taking place over one of the oldest questions in corporate law, namely, “For whom is the corporation managed?”. In addition to legal academics and lawyers, high profile business leaders and business school professors have entered the fray and politicians have offered legislative “fixes” for the “problem of shareholder primacy.” 

In this article, the author takes this debate to be an interesting development in corporate governance and tries to understand and explain what is going on. Prof. Rock argues that, analytically and conceptually, there are four separate questions being askedFirst, what is the best theory of the legal form we call “the corporation”?  Second, how should academic finance understand the properties of the legal form when building models or engaging in empirical research? Third, what are good management strategies for building valuable firms? And, finally, what are the social roles and obligations of large publicly traded firms?  He argues that populist pressures that emerged from the financial crisis, combined with political dysfunction, have led to the confusion of these different questions, with regrettable results.

 

The ECGI Spotlight Series is a global online seminar programme highlighting chosen papers from the ECGI Working Paper Series.

Spotlight Team:
Mike Burkart (Editor) | Miriam Schwartz-Ziv | Amir Licht (Editor) | Tom Vos
Contact: Spotlight@ecgi.org

 

Supported by

            

MONDAY, 14 September 2020 | 16:00 CEST (10:00 EDT)

16:00
- 16:05

Introductory remarks

Speakers:
Tom Vos
16:05
- 16:30

For Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose

Speakers:
Back to full programme

For Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose

Time:
16:05h
- 16:30h

Speakers

Conference Documents

Back to full programme

Guest Panel

Time:
16:30h
- 16:55h

Speakers

Conference Documents

16:55
- 17:00

Concluding remarks

Speakers

Tom Vos

Presentations

Back to all presentations

Introductory remarks

Time:
16:00h
- 16:05h

Speakers

Tom Vos
Back to all presentations

For Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose

Time:
16:05h
- 16:30h

Speakers

Conference Documents

Back to all presentations

Guest Panel

Time:
16:30h
- 16:55h

Speakers

Conference Documents