Missing the Target (PDF)

Why stock-market short-termism is not causing severe damage to the American economy

According to many political leaders, pundits, and corporate lawmakers, stock-market-driven short-termism - when corporations prioritize immediate results in the next quarter over their longer-term interests - is harming the American economy. This view, popular in influential circles, sees short-termism as causing sharply declining research and development (R&D), too many stock buybacks, and severe environmental harm. But the data fits badly with this black-and-white representation of short-termism.

Mark J. Roe analyzes the best data on R&D, corporate borrowings and buybacks, and long-term investment trends to show that stock market short-termism is not at the root of these economic problems. The book shows that blaming short-termism overlooks the real causes of declining investment, R&D changes, and environmental deterioration. By pointing to other sources of tension like accelerating technological change, rising political uncertainty, and repeated economic disruptions, Missing the Target argues for a more nuanced understanding of the challenges to the American economy. Roe disproves many of the core claims against short termism. R&D spending, for example, is rising faster than the economy is growing. It's government R&D support that's been falling. Reversing that decline is the best first target for bettering American R&D.

Missing the Target deepens the discussion of the American economy by analyzing the factors that contribute to current trends and by making a bold but straightforward claim: stock market short-termism is not the problem.