On Values in Finance and Ethics: Forgotten Trails and Promising Pathways
by Henry Schäfer

About the author
Prof. Dr. Henry Schäfer is the holder of the Chair of Finance at the University of Stuttgart. His main focus in research is on the valuation of assets, in particular regarding real options and non-financial parameters. Other research fields are project finance, behavioral corporate finance and the valuation of real estate projects. Particular relevance is given to research regarding ‘Sustainability & Finance’. Prof. Schäfer is one of the leading German research capacities in SRI and CSR. He has also published several text books in finance and is consulting several major well-known global firms. In 2007 he founded EccoWorks,an internationally operating advisory firm focusing its services on the interface between CSR and asset management.

About this book
This book uses the building blocks of modern capital market theory, including behavioural finance, as the point of departure for an analysis of hidden ethical content in the contemporary research into capital markets.
It illustrates the significant degree of alienation between the financial and the real side of economies, stemming from the long-standing struggle between ethics and economics. Furthermore, it provides a roadmap of modern value thinking, highlighting the crucial role of stakeholders and non-governmental organizations.

Table of contents
1 Introduction
2 A“Selfie” of Finance and Ethics
    2.1 The Building Blocks of the Modern House of Finance: Capital Market Theory and Finance
    2.2 Crisis, What Crisis? The House of Finance in a Seismic Environment
    2.3 Rigor Versus Relevance: The Potential of Sustainability to Promote a Scientific Revolution Program in Finance in the Sense of Kuhn
        2.3.1 Stakeholder Versus Shareholder
        2.3.2 The Paradox of Social Costs
3 On Values: The (Hidden) Ethical Framework in Capital Market Theory (An Outline of Ethics in Economics and Finance)
    3.1 The Classical Links Between Values, Money, and Finance: Religions and Institutions
    3.2 Ethics and Finance: The Matrix
        3.2.1 Building Blocks of Ethics with Respect to Economics and Finance
        3.2.2 Ethics in the Neoclassical Paradigm and in the Theory of Finance
        3.2.3 Overcoming the Separation Principle in Finance
4 Key Points of Sustainability and CSR: Stakeholder Theory and the Theory of External Effects
    4.1 Starting from the “Interior of the Earth”: Neoclassical Paradigm and the Problem of External Effects
        4.1.1 A Tax for Good
        4.1.2 A Market for “Bads”
    4.2 The Concept of Sustainable Development and Its Links to Finance
    4.3 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): A Twin to Sustainability?
5 Understanding How Stakeholders Are Affecting Sustainability and Finance
    5.1 Why Should Firms Care About CSR, Stakeholders, and NGOs? A Knowledge-Based View
    5.2 Stakeholder Theory, Firm Behavior, and the Link to Finance
    5.3 Interactions Between Firms, Stakeholder, and Nongovernmental Organizations
6 Concluding Remarks
    6.1 Only the Bad Counts
    6.2 Inside Out and Outside In
    6.3 Shades of Gray
    6.4 Bringing Home the Bacon
    6.5 Setting a Fox to Keep the Geese
    6.6 It Is Always Good to Be Good
    6.7 Power to the People
    6.8 “Brain Salad Surgery”
    6.9 Information Overflow
    6.10 A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
7 Perspectives
Bibliography

Series: SpringerBriefs in Finance
Pages: 102
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, 1st ed. 2019 (Jan 6, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9783030046842

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