The dividend discount model already anticipated the Miller-Modigliani irrelevance critique.

Evidence

The value of a corporation’s stock is ultimately as an entitlement to the future stream of dividends paid to the stockholders by the corporation, argued both Williams and the market practitioners on whom he drew. The emphasis on dividends seems to be contradicted by the later Miller-Modigliani assertion of the irrelevance of dividend policy, but Williams anticipated the objection that dividend policy was arbitrary by arguing that if corporate earnings that are not paid out as dividends can profitably be reinvested then they will enhance future dividends, and so be taken account of in his model (Williams 1938, pp. 57-58). — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 204

Categorization

• XREF: Prefigures the broader performativity thread: a theory anticipating its later rival critique is relevant to how finance theory evolves. — connects to: Dividend discount pricing theory predates Graham and Dodd’s canonical statement. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1428; Stock valuation discounts future dividends because present money earns interest. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 205

Broader Connections

• Dividend discount pricing theory predates Graham and Dodd’s canonical statement. #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1428
• Stock valuation discounts future dividends because present money earns interest. #expands (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 205