The Modigliani-Miller partnership targeted the finance profession, not behavioral economists

Evidence

Despite their differences, Modigliani and Miller, who had adjoining offices, found they had enough in common to build a productive, albeit temporary, partnership. Its products were not a direct response to Simon’s “behavioral” critique of economics. Their first joint paper “was meant to upset my colleagues in finance,” Modigliani recalled (1995, p. 153), not to upset Simon, whom they both respected despite the fact that they were both on the opposite side to him in the intellectual dispute that split the Graduate School of Industrial Administration. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 172

Categorization

• QUESTION: What specifically upset the finance colleagues about the first joint paper — the irrelevance propositions? Worth chasing for detail on how provocation shaped the theory.