Lecture 1: What Should Corporations Do? - The Role of Private Corporations in Society
As US corporations backpedal furiously from their previous commitments on climate and diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is instructive to revisit the role of private corporations in society. In the first lecture, Dr. Rajan, will examine theories of why we have corporations and draw from those what social responsibilities corporations might reasonably be expected to have. In the second lecture, Dr. Rajan will examine what large US corporate CEOs have said their corporations are doing in perhaps their most public formal statement, their annual letter to shareholders. He will analyze these letters from 1955. He will then discuss what we can conclude from the evidence and the theories on the role of corporations in society.
Speakers
Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth. He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between September 2013 and September 2016. Between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Rajan’s research interests are in banking, corporate finance, and economic development. The books he has written include Breaking the Mold: Reimagining India's Economic Future with Rohit Lamba, The Third Pillar: How the State and Markets hold the Community Behind 2019 which was a finalist for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year prize and Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, for which he was awarded the Financial Times prize for Business Book of the Year in 2010.
- Leadership and Service