What Do Shareholders Want? Consumer Welfare and the Objective of the Firm
Only 7% of shareholders would vote for pure profit maximisation; the median values $1 of consumer surplus like $0.44 of profit.
Summary
Calibrations and a survey experiment show shareholders want weight on consumer welfare through lower markups.
Editor's opinion
A genuinely provocative data point on the objective of the firm, but a narrow academic survey-experiment design.
Key concepts
objective of the firm · consumer welfare · shareholder preferences