Join the HLS Library on Wednesday October 19 at 12:30pm in Milstein East BC, Wasserstein Hall for a HLS Library Book Talk! This event features a discussion on Missing the Target: Why Stock-Market Short-Termism Is Not the Problem with author Mark Roe and panelists Holger Spamann and Jesse Fried. This event is free and will be recorded. Lunch will be served. If you, or an event participant, require disability-related accommodations, please contact Accessibility Services at [email protected]. This event is open to all Harvard ID holders.
More about the book from Oxford University Press:
According to many political leaders, pundits, and corporate lawmakers, stock-market-driven short-termism—when corporations prioritize immediate results in the next quarter over their longer-term interests—is harming the American economy. This view, popular in influential circles, sees short-termism as causing sharply declining research and development (R&D), too many stock buybacks, and severe environmental harm. But the data fits badly with this black-and-white representation of short-termism.
Mark J. Roe analyzes the best data on R&D, corporate borrowings and buybacks, and long-term investment trends to show that stock market short-termism is not at the root of these economic problems. The book shows that blaming short-termism overlooks the real causes of declining investment, R&D changes, and environmental deterioration. By pointing to other sources of tension like accelerating technological change, rising political uncertainty, and repeated economic disruptions, Missing the Target argues for a more nuanced understanding of the challenges to the American economy…[and] deepens the discussion of the American economy by analyzing the factors that contribute to current trends and by making a bold but straightforward claim: stock market short-termism is not the problem.
