The Everyday Practice of Valuation and Investment: Political Imaginaries of Shareholder Value

The financial industry claims to act in the interest of shareholders by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and enriching them contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. Horacio Ortiz's book provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation, demonstrating how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to this practice. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 23 November 2021
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

The financial industry claims to be acting in the best interests of shareholders, which gives it legitimacy. A vast network of funds, banks, insurance companies, brokerages, rating agencies, and regulatory agencies supports this claim by asserting that market mechanisms determine a company's true value and that enriching shareholders contributes to the socially optimal allocation of capital. However, is this how stock prices are determined in practice? What does stock valuation reveal about the efficiency of markets and what it means to act on behalf of shareholders?

Horacio Ortiz provides a critical analysis of the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing and valuation. He examines how financial professionals evaluate and invest in listed companies, unraveling the contradictory definitions of financial value that shape their behavior. Ortiz demonstrates how ideologically laden notions of investing skill and efficient markets are central to the everyday practices of financial valuation, as well as how they function to justify the broader system. He scrutinizes the technical aspects of valuation and investment, their place in social relations within and among companies, and their relation to state regulation in order to demystify how the financial industry presents prices as truths that the rest of society must accept.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among stock brokers and investment management companies in New York and Paris, this book shows how the political imaginaries that underpin financial markets are central to producing, sustaining, and legitimizing global inequalities.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 141 x 218 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231201193