Lecture 9: Corporate Stocks (ECON 252)

Financial Markets (2011) (ECON 252)

Professor Shiller emphasizes the worldwide importance of corporations by looking at World Bank data for corporate stocks as traded on global stock markets. He, then, turns his attention to the concept of a corporation, elaborating on the role of shareholders, the board of directors, and the Chief Operating Officer. He compares and contrasts for-profit and nonprofit corporations. He discusses equity financing of for-profit corporations, covering market capitalization, dividends, share repurchases, dilution, and the difference between common and preferred shares. He discusses, and rejects claims that share issuance is not really important for capital raising in modern times. Professor Shiller concludes this lecture with a discussion of the balance sheets of two well-known corporations, Xerox and Microsoft.