In a recent paper in this Journal, Stiglitz purports to show that leverage may affect the value of the firm in competitive capital markets if the possibility of bankruptcy and the differential expectations between stock holders and bond holders are admitted. However, Stiglitz argues that...

The findings of Jensen-Long and Stiglitz on the optimality of the stock market allocation have led to a controversy over whether the sources of the nonoptimality of value maximization are noncompetive assumptions about the capital market or are inherent externalities associated with uncertainty...