The World Under Financialization

Session Submission Type: In-Person Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In the 21st century, financialization and finance capitalism have become core features of advanced economies. Scholars have noted how finance has become increasingly important in the performance and structure of national economies, corporate decision-making and in the “everyday lives” of individuals. Less explored has been how the process of financialization intertwines with contemporary monetary policy in the face of secular stagnation, especially during economic downturns. Different actors often expect different things from central banks in crises, including the provision of support to stock and housing markets, as well as more traditional macroeconomic policy objectives. These conflicting pressures and the intensification of the distributional politics of central bank policy due to rising wealth inequality has posed new challenges for policymakers and for the model of central banking inherited from the experiences of the 1970s and 1980s. This panel examines the new politics of central banking in the world of financialization.

(Pre-Recorded Discussant)

Sub Unit

• Division 16: International Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Central Banks and Public Confidence after the Global Financial Crisis - Juliet Johnson, McGill University

• Pandemic Preferences: Voter Attitudes Towards COVID19 Central Bank Interventions (Pre-Recorded) - Andrew Walter, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne; Nicole Rae Baerg, Bank of England; Jeffrey M. Chwieroth, London School of Economics

• States for Markets? Political Responsiveness to Stock Market Returns (Pre-Recorded) - Gabrielle Cheung, Harvard University; Gene Park, Loyola Marymount University; Saori N. Katada, University of Southern California

• The Subterranean Politics of Pension Financialization - Natascha van der Zwan, Leiden University

Chair

• Sylvia Maxfield Providence College

Discussant

• Sylvia Maxfield Providence College