Death on the stock exchange
The fate of the 1948 population of large UK quoted companies, 1948–2018
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8418436 |
|---|---|
| Authors | G Meeks (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, corresponding author), Geoffrey Whittington (0000-0001-6799-5821, University of Cambridge) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 679-698 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Business History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-6791 • E-ISSN: 1743-7938 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00076791.2021.1893696 |
| OpenAlex | W3168890123 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
This article provides a long-term demographic analysis of the principal members of the population of companies quoted on the UK stock exchanges in 1948. Motivated by theories of natural selection and of corporate governance, it traces the survival records of the 1948 population over the biblical ‘threescore years and ten’ to 2018. Of the population of 1513 companies in 1948, only 19 survived for the full seventy years. The survival rate, as captured by the half-life of companies in the population, is remarkably stable over the period. As well as charting death rates over time, the study explores the causes of death – takeover, failure, etc. Also it analyses the relationship between survival and the characteristics of the firm and its environment
Biology · Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Population · Sociology · Stock (firearms · Stock exchange · Survival of the fittest · Accounting · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency · Corporate Finance and Governance · Demography · Finance · Firm Innovation and Growth · History
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |