Competition and Change 

About: Competition and Change is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Corporate governance & Financialization. It has an ISSN identifier of 1024-5294. Over the lifetime, 581 publications have been published receiving 14313 citations. The journal is also known as: Competition and change.

Global Capitalism and Commodity Chains: Looking Back, Going Forward

Abstract: This paper assesses the achievements and limitations of commodity chain research as it has evolved over the last decade. The primary objectives are two-fold. First, I highlight an important but generally unacknowledged break between the original world-systemsinspired tradition of commodity chain research and two subsequent chain approaches, the global commodity chain (GCC) and global value chain (GVC) frameworks. Second, I argue that contra the macro and holistic perspective of the world-systems approach, much of the recent chains literature, and particularly the more economistic GVC variant, is increasingly oriented in its analytical approach towards the meso level of sectoral logics and the micro level objective of industrial upgrading. I conclude that closer attention to the larger institutional and structural environments in which commodity chains are embedded is needed in order to more fully inform our understanding of the uneven social and developmental dynamics of contemporary capitalism at the global-local nexus.

The Financialization of Home and the Mortgage Market Crisis

Abstract: Financialization can be characterized as capital switching from the primary, secondary or tertiary circuit to the quaternary circuit of capital. Housing is a central aspect of financialization. The financialization of mortgage markets demands that not just homes but also homeowners become viewed as financially exploitable. It is exemplified by the securitization of mortgage loans, but also by the use of credit scoring and risk-based pricing. In the past century, mortgage markets were transformed from being a ‘facilitating market’ for homeowners in need of credit to one increasingly facilitating global investment. Since mortgage markets are both local consumer markets and global investment markets, the dynamics of financialization and globalization directly relate homeowners to global investors thereby increasing the volatility in mortgage markets, as the current crisis shows all too well.

Financialization and Housing : Between Globalization and Varieties of Capitalism

Abstract: In the literature, one finds various explanations for the rise of financialized capitalism. In the different strands of financialization literature, housing either plays a minor role or is simply s...

Some Stylized Facts on the Finance-Dominated Accumulation Regime

Abstract: While there is an agreement that the Fordist accumulation regime has come to an end in the course of the 1970s, there is no agreement on how to characterize the post-Fordist regime (or if a such is already in place). The paper seeks put together various arguments related to financialization (in the broad sense) from a macroeconomic point of view and investigate the relevance of these arguments by means of an analysis stylized facts for EU countries. The paper discusses changes in investment behaviour, consumption behaviour and government expenditures, investigating to what extent changes are related to financialization. Households experience higher debt levels. Rising profits of businesses come with only moderate investment. The notion of a “finance-dominated” accumulation regime is proposed to highlight that financial developments crucially shape the pattern and the pace of accumulation. The finance dominated accumulation regime is characterized by a mediocre growth performance and by higher volatility. However, so far deregulated financial markets have not lead to major financial crises in advanced capitalist economies. A possible reason for this is that the size of the state sector has not been substantially reduced despite neoliberal attempts to do so.

Global Commodity Chains: New Forms of Coordination and Control Among Nations and Firms in International Industries.

Abstract: This article builds on Whitley's comparison of the business systems and global commodity chains approaches to the study of economic organization within and across nations and regions. My objective ...