Contemporary law and public policy often treat human beings as selfish creatures who respond only to punishments and rewards. Yet every day we behave unselfishly--few of us mug the elderly or steal the paper from our neighbor's yard, and many of us go out of our way to help strangers. We nevertheles[...]
Executives, investors, and the business press routinely chant the mantra that corporations are "owned by shareholders" and managers are obliged to "maximize shareholder value." The results have been disastrous. "Shareholder primacy" thinking causes corporate managers to focus myopically on short-ter[...]