An Engine, not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets, Donald MacKenzie

摘要

This is the story of the transformations that have taken place in both the theory of finance and in financial markets since the 1960s. The crucial development was probably the work of Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller on financial markets. The ruling theory of finance offered explanations of the optimal level of debt a firm should incur, and how it should determine the dividends it paid its shareholders. Modigliani and Miller overturned such arguments through showing that, given assumptions about financial markets that were consistent with assumptions conventionally made in economic theory, neither gearing nor dividend policy should affect the return to shareholders. They were irrelevant. For example, if a firm issued too much debt, causing returns to shareholders to be too risky, shareholders could offset this by holding a mixture of debt and equity.