Finance progressed where it studied markets rather than firms’ internal workings

Evidence

Success had come, said Cootner, because finance academics had been able to look not directly at the firm but at the market. “The areas within finance that have progressed more slowly are either those internal to the firm and most immune to market constraint, or those in which financial institutions’ very raison d’etre [sic] arises from the imperfection of markets.” — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 327

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Financial economics actively alters markets rather than merely describing them — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 64; Pre-1950s US finance education centered on institutions and legal structure, not markets or mathematics. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 158; In mid-century US academia, the stock market was a low-prestige research topic. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 201 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Postwar finance scholarship shifted its gaze from the corporation to the market #corroborates (0.95) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 328
• Finance theory altered its own empirical object of study #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 388