https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w8178/w8178.pdf

The great reversals: the politics of financial development in the twentieth century

Indicators of the development of the financial sector do not improve monotonically over time. In particular, we find that by most measures, countries were more financially developed in 1913 than in 1980 and only recently have they surpassed their 1913 levels. This pattern cannot be explained by structural theories that attribute cross-country differences in financial development to time-invariant factors, such as a country's legal origin or culture. We propose an "interest group" theory of financial development where incumbents oppose financial development because it breeds competition. The theory predicts that incumbents' opposition will be weaker when an economy allows both cross-border trade and capital flows. This theory can go some way in accounting for the cross-country differences and the time series variation of financial development. When we recognize that different kinds of institutional heritages afford different scope for private interests to express themselves, we obtain a synthesis between the structural theories and private interest theory, which is supported by the data.

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The Great Reversals: The Politics of Financial Development in the 20th Century

This paper presents systematic empirical evidence for the financialization of the US economy in the post-1970s period. While numerous researchers have noted the increasing salience of finance, there have been few systematic attempts to consider what this shift means for the nature of the economy, considered broadly. In large part, this omission reflects the considerable methodological difficulties associated with using national economic data to assess the rise of finance as a macro-level phenomenon shaping patterns of accumulation in the US economy. The paper develops two discrete measures of financialization and applies these measures to postwar US economic data in order to determine if, and to what extent, the US economy is becoming financialized. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications of financialization for two areas of ongoing debate in the social sciences: (1) the question of who controls the modern corporation; and (2) the controversy surrounding the extent to which globalization has eroded the autonomy of the state.

The financialization of the American economy

During recent years social scientists have come to reaffirm that understanding almost any facet of social life requires a simultaneous understanding of how economic institutions work and how they are influenced by values and norms. Sociology, and especially economic sociology, is well equipped to be of assistance in this endeavor. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg bring together leading sociologists, economists, and political scientists in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, the first comprehensive view of this vital and growing field.During recent years social scientists have come to reaffirm that understanding almost any facet of social life requires a simultaneous understanding of how economic institutions work and how they are influenced by values and norms. Sociology, and especially economic sociology, is well equipped to be of assistance in this endeavor. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg bring together leading sociologists, economists, and political scientists in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, the first comprehensive view of this vital and growing field.

The Handbook of economic sociology

One of the most important developments over the past three decades has been the spread of liberal economic ideas and policies throughout the world. These policies have affected the lives of millions of people, yet our most sophisticated political economy models do not adequately capture influences on these policy choices. Evidence suggests that the adoption of liberal economic practices is highly clustered both temporally and spatially. We hypothesize that this clustering might be due to processes of policy diffusion. We think of diffusion as resulting from one of two broad sets of forces: one in which mounting adoptions of a policy alter the benefits of adopting for others and another in which adoptions provide policy relevant information about the benefits of adopting. We develop arguments within these broad classes of mechanisms, construct appropriate measures of the relevant concepts, and test their effects on liberalization and restriction of the current account, the capital account, and the exchange rate regime. Our findings suggest that domestic models of foreign economic policy making are insufficient. The evidence shows that policy transitions are influenced by international economic competition as well as the policies of a country's sociocultural peers. We interpret the latter influence as a form of channeled learning reflecting governments' search for appropriate models for economic policy.

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The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy

1. IntroductionPART I: THE RESTRICTIVE BRETTON WOODS FINANCIAL ORDER 2. Bretton Woods and the Endorsement of Capital Controls 3. Continuing Caution: The Slow and Limited Move to ConvertibilityPART II: THE REEMERGENCE OF GLOBAL FINANCE 4. Support for the Euromarket in the 1960s 5. Failed Cooperation in the Early 1970s 6. Four Turning Points in the Late 1970s and Early 1980s 7. The Liberalization Trend in the 1980s 8. Weathering International Financial CrisesPART III: CONCLUSION 9. Explaining Differing State Behavior in Trade and FinanceWorks Cited Index

States and the Reemergence of Global Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s

The 2008 financial crisis has had an important, but neglected, impact on carbon market governance in the United States. It acted as a catalyst for the emergence of a domestic coalition that drew upon the crisis experience to demand stronger regulation over carbon markets. The influence of this coalition was seen first in the changing content of draft climate change bills between 2008 and 2010. But the coalition's more lasting legacy was its role in shaping the content of, and supporting, the passage of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd–Frank bill) in July 2010. Although that bill was aimed primarily at bolstering financial stability, its derivatives provisions strengthened carbon market regulation in significant ways. This policy episode demonstrates new patterns of coalition building in carbon market politics as well as the growing links between climate governance and financial regulatory politics. At the same time, the significance of these developments should not be overstated because of various limitations in the content and implementation of the Dodd–Frank bill, as well as the waning support for carbon markets more generally within the US since the bill's passage.

Subprime catalyst: Financial regulatory reform and the strengthening of US carbon market governance

States and the Reemergence of Global Finance

The Making of National Money: Territorial Currencies in Historical Perspective

Economists have explained the 2007–2008 global financial crisis with reference to various market and regulatory failures as well as a macro-economic environment of cheap credit during the precrisis period. These developments had important political causes that scholars of international political economy (IPE) should have been well positioned to study before the crisis. How well did they anticipate the crisis? Although none foresaw all the causes, a number of IPE scholars correctly identified many of the dangers associated with new models of securitization as well as accompanying regulatory failures and the politics underlying them. IPE scholars were less successful in identifying the macroeconomic roots of the crisis, particularly the role of international capital flows in fueling the U.S. financial bubble, but some scholars did usefully explore the politics that contributed to the latter phenomenon. The study of IPE scholarship in this episode contains useful lessons for the field's future.

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Eric Helleiner

Papers

States and the Reemergence of Global Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s

Subprime catalyst: Financial regulatory reform and the strengthening of US carbon market governance

States and the Reemergence of Global Finance

The Making of National Money: Territorial Currencies in Historical Perspective

Understanding the 2007–2008 Global Financial Crisis: Lessons for Scholars of International Political Economy