The Corporation in Finance

67 Pages Posted: 13 Jan 2012 Last revised: 23 Mar 2012

See all articles by Raghuram G. Rajan

Raghuram G. Rajan

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; International Monetary Fund (IMF); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 22, 2012

Abstract

The nature of the firm and its financing are closely interlinked. To produce significant net present value, an entrepreneur has to transform her enterprise into one that is differentiated from the ordinary. To achieve the control that will allow her to execute this strategy, she needs to have substantial ownership, and thus financing. But it is hard to raise finance against differentiated assets. So an entrepreneur has to commit to undertake a second transformation, standardization, that will make the human capital in the firm, including her own, replaceable, so that outside financiers obtain rights over going-concern surplus. I argue that the availability of a vibrant stock market helps the entrepreneur commit to these two transformations in a way that a debt market would not. This helps explain why the nature of firms and the extent of innovation differ so much in different financing environments.

JEL Classification: G32, L22, L26

Suggested Citation

Rajan, Raghuram G., The Corporation in Finance (March 22, 2012). Chicago Booth Research Paper No. 12-02, Fama-Miller Working Paper, IGM Working Paper No. 69, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1983992 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1983992

Raghuram G. Rajan (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
773-702-4437 (Phone)
773-702-0458 (Fax)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
773-702-9299 (Phone)
773-702-0458 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,533
Abstract Views
9,521
Rank
20,486
PlumX Metrics