It is best for society if the management of U.S. publicly traded corporations only considers the impact of their decisions on customers, employees, and community members to the extent that these impacts feedback to impact shareholder wealth.
Responses
Responses weighted by each expert's confidence
| Participant | University | Vote | Confidence | Bio/Vote History |
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 Daron Acemoglu |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Is it ok for companies to cheat to max shareholder value? Where do you draw the line? A broader set of objectives for companies is a must.
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 Alberto Alesina |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Joseph Altonji |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alan Auerbach |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Autor |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Katherine Baicker |
University of Chicago | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Abhijit Banerjee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Marianne Bertrand |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Markus Brunnermeier |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Raj Chetty |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Judith Chevalier |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Cutler |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Angus Deaton |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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What we have now is a disaster. Boards controlled by CEO shareholders who enrich themselves at others expense esp workers.
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 Darrell Duffie |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Negative externalities. Example: If pollution regulation is too weak (likely true), then shareholder maximization ignores social costs.
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 Aaron Edlin |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Barry Eichengreen |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Liran Einav |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Ray Fair |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Amy Finkelstein |
MIT | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Austan Goolsbee |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Michael Greenstone |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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h/t to Judy Chevalier: phrasing would approve of a firm illegally emitting pollutants that kill people if they aren't caught
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 Robert Hall |
Stanford | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Oliver Hart |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Companies should maximize shareholder welfare not wealth. If shareholders care about workers and the community, the company should too.
-see background information here |
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 Bengt Holmström |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Don’t know a better stated alternative objective, but It has had varying influnce and interpretation over time.
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 Caroline Hoxby |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Hilary Hoynes |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Kenneth Judd |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I doubt that the shareholder maximizing efforts of the makers of OxyContin was good for society.
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 Steven Kaplan |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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While alternatives may seem attractive, they are difficult if not impossible to measure, implement and govern.
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 Anil Kashyap |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Usually doing evil things are bad for shareholders too, the question is how often and important are the exceptions -- hard to generalize
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 Pete Klenow |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I prefer to use transparent taxes and regulations to correct market failures (and government failures).
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 Jonathan Levin |
Stanford | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Eric Maskin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Corporations are accountable to their shareholders, but shareholders may well want their companies to behave socially responsibly.
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 William Nordhaus |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Emmanuel Saez |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Larry Samuelson |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Maximizing shareholder wealth would be best for society in a perfect world, but externalities can cause interests to diverge.
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 José Scheinkman |
Columbia University | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Schmalensee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Often, though, CEOs seem to ignore those feedbacks or pretend they can prevent them.
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 Carl Shapiro |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Robert Shimer |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 James Stock |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Thaler |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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The Supreme Court declared that corporations have rights like citizens. With rights come obligations. Firms can choose to be good citizens.
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 Christopher Udry |
Northwestern | Bio/Vote History | ||
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The world is not, in fact, frictionless and perfectly competitive. Rents abound, and the is room for multiple objectives.
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