Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value
Working Paper Author/Authors
Abstract
What is the appropriate objective function for a firm? We analyze this question for the case where shareholders are prosocial and externalities are not perfectly separable from production decisions.
We argue that maximization of shareholder welfare is not the same as maximization of market value. We propose that company and asset managers should pursue policies consistent with the preferences of their investors. Voting by shareholders on corporate policy is one way to achieve this.
Published in
© Oliver Hart, Luigi Zingales, 2017
All rights reserved. Distributed for discussion purposes only; not to be reproduced without permission.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of ECGI or its members.
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