The Rise of Digital Financialisation: The Case of India

ABSTRACT

Traditional notions of financialisation require updating to study the reorganisation of finance around digital infrastructures. We introduce the concept of digital financialisation, defined as the often-coerced merging of two hitherto separate aspects of citizens’ lives – interactions using digital technologies and financial transactions – into a new hybrid realm. This realm is undergirded by an infrastructure that harvests citizens’ data, which companies can monetise and governments can use for political surveillance. In developing countries, the state plays a key role in creating surveillance infrastructures, often using coercive means in the name of financial inclusion, as the demonetisation and Aadhaar projects in India show. Unlike the industry-finance conflict in ‘analogue’ financialisation, digital financialisation involves domestic and cross-border conflicts between tech and finance companies for control of the hybrid realm. The state mediates these conflicts. In India, it deploys a narrative of technocultural nationalism to cultivate its domestic political constituencies and downplay its reliance on foreign technology.     

Semi-peripheral Financialisation and Social Reproduction: The Case of Portugal

Portugal, a semi-peripheral country within the world economy, has followed financialisation processes similar to and distinct from those of core countries. This article reflects on the factors that have shaped social reproduction in Portugal by examining the differentiated ways through which finance has interacted with the provision of housing, pensions and water and their variegated impacts. Based on these three case studies, the article discusses the constraints on, and pressures for, continued expansion of finance in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. It underlines the subordinated and uneven nature of Portuguese semi-peripheral financialisation, the role of European integration in its unfolding, and concludes that the promotion of the interests of finance located in major advanced capitalist countries, and of the national and international institutions under their influence, has resulted in growing social and spatial inequalities.     

Immigrant Earnings Adjustment: The Impact of Age at Migration

Human capital theory, in conjunction with Chiswick's (1978 ) and Borjas' (1998) work, implies the post-migration path of immigrant earnings is likely to depend on the age at migration. An adaptation of Borjas' (1998) model of immigrant wage determination is presented which predicts, for a given stock of human capital at the point of migration, lower initial earnings for younger arrivals, but faster earnings growth with time in the destination country. Empirical tests on data for Australian immigrants provide qualified support for the hypothesis that initial wages are, ceteris paribus , increasing in age at migration and the rate of wage growth is decreasing in age at migration.     

Political Control of Administrative Spending: The Case of Local Governments in Norway

Excessive administrative spending in local governments has been a concern in the public debate in Norway. Administration takes resources away from welfare services such as primary education and care for the elderly. Since administrative spending varies considerably between local governments, a study of the political and economic factors involved is warranted. The central hypothesis is that the administrators will have more power relative to the politicians when political control is divided between parties. Estimation of a demand model of administration added political structure shows strong empirical correlations between types of coalition governments and socialist controlled governments and the level of administrative spending. Divided political control strengthens the hands of the agenda setting bureaucrats.     

Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation

Over the past decades, the financial investment of non-financialbusinesses has been rising, and the accumulation of capitalgoods has been declining. The first part of the paper offersa novel theory to explain this phenomenon. Financialisation,the shareholder revolution and the development of a market forcorporate control have shifted power to shareholders and thuschanged management priorities, leading to a reduction in thedesired growth rate. In the second part, the link between accumulationand financialisation is tested econometrically by means of atime series analysis of aggregate business investment for theUSA, the UK, France and Germany. Extensive tests of robustnessare performed. For the first three countries, evidence supportingthe negative effect of financialisation on accumulation is found.     

Subordinated Financial Integration and Financialisation in Emerging Capitalist Economies: The Brazilian Experience

This paper analyses the recent changes in financial practices and relations in emerging capitalist economies (ECEs) using the example of Brazil. It argues that in ECEs these financial transformations, akin to the financialisation phenomena observed in Core Capitalist Economies (CCEs), are fundamentally shaped by their subordinated integration into a financialised and structured world economy. To analyse this subordinated financialisation, the paper draws on the framework of international currency hierarchies. It shows by means of two specific processes how the existence of a hierarchic international monetary system has changed the financial behaviour of domestic economic agents, and with it the structure of the financial system. The first process highlights the phenomenon of reserve accumulation and the changing behaviour of domestic banks. The second points to ECEs’ sustained external vulnerability and its impact on the operations of Brazilian non-financial corporations. The paper also shows that not only were these financial transformations shaped by ECEs’ subordinated financial integration, but also that it was these financialisation tendencies themselves which contributed to cementing existing hierarchies and further deepened existing asymmetries between ECEs and CCEs.     

Optimal Design of Pension Rule with Flexible Retirement: The Two-Type Case

We study a model where the government offers two contracts: either low retirement age, low lifetime benefit or high retirement age, high lifetime benefit. Each worker privately knows whether he has a low or high life expectancy and chooses accordingly. The so-called ``actuarially fair' system – calculated at an average life expectancy – is shown to be not fair: the expectedly shorter-lived subsidize the expectedly longer-lived. Considering optimal design, second-best contracts are separating. Under neutrality, the shorter-lived retire too early with too low a benefit. Under redistribution, the shorter-lived work long enough and receive a high enough benefit to enjoy a higher lifetime utility than under neutrality, although they subsidize the longer-lived.     

Rethinking the Financialisation of Non-Financial Corporations: A Reappraisal of US Empirical Data

This article assesses the claims of the shareholder value literature of the effects of financialisation on non-financial corporations and, particularly, the claim that fixed capital accumulation in the United States has been impeded by the increasing financial payments of non-financial corporations, and also by these firms transforming themselves into rentiers. The financialisation explanation of macro patterns assumes that trends in the 1970s and early 1980s are representative of the pre-financialisation era but that is not so. Another complication is the global sphere. The vast expansion of majority-owned foreign affiliates from the mid-1990s suggests that the managers of US non-financial corporations did not abandon growth objectives. Claims about rentieralisation also require further investigation. On the one hand, it is misleading to treat all external investment as a financial asset and to assume that corporate dividends provide a robust proxy for financialisation. On the other hand, the shift to external accumulation by US non-financial corporations is obscured due in part to the conceptual limitations of direct investment data, and the widespread strategy of forming non-bank holding companies to funnel cross-border activities.     

PPP in the medium run: The case of Norway

Existing studies generally reject purchasing power parity (PPP) on data sets from countries that have been affected by large real shocks, including Norway. However, we offer strong evidence of PPP between Norway and its trading partners during the post-Bretton Woods period, in which the Norwegian economy has experienced numerous real shocks such as discoveries of large petroleum reserves and oil price shocks. In particular, the behavior of the Norwegian real and nominal exchange rates appears remarkably consistent with the PPP theory. Moreover, convergence towards PPP is relatively rapid; the half-life of a deviation from parity is just about 1.5 years. We show that such deviations are primarily eliminated by adjustments in the nominal exchange rate and we offer some explanations for the relatively rapid convergence towards PPP.     

The Interaction of Market Failure and Structural Adjustment in Producer Credit and Land Markets: The Case of Nicaragua

While nonprofit organizations serve the community in significant ways, their heavy reliance on philanthropic and government funding is increasingly not sustainable, especially in the wake of economic downturns. The application of social entrepreneurial principles — including social enterprise activities — can improve the sustainability of the business model of nonprofits, while bolstering management capacity and enhancing mission. This paper argues that the current funding model of the nonprofit sector should be disrupted in order to achieve a greater level of financial sustainability and mission-driven success.     

Dimensions and Determinants of Financialisation: Comparing OECD Countries since 1997

ABSTRACT

The financialisation literature has grown over the past decades. Despite a generally accepted definition, financialisation has been used to describe different phenomena. We distinguish between financialisation of non-financial companies, households and the financial sector and use activity and vulnerability measures. We identify seven financialisation hypotheses in the literature and empirically investigate them in a cross-country analysis for 17 OECD countries and two time periods, 1997–2007 as well as 2008–17. We find different financialisation measures are only weakly correlated, suggesting the existence of distinct financialisation processes. There is strong evidence that financialisation is linked to asset price inflation and correlated with a debt-driven demand regime. Financial deregulation encourages financialisation. There is limited evidence that market-based financial systems are more financialised. Foreign financial inflows do not seem a main driver. We do not find indication that an investment slowdown precedes financialisation. Our findings suggest financialisation should be understood as a variegated process, playing out differently across economic sectors and countries.     

宏观调控的核心：适度调节——评闻潜教授《中国经济运行与宏观调节》

闻潜教授的专著《中国经济运行与宏观调节》一书于今年5月由中国财政经济出版社出版了.这部65万字的宏篇巨著是闻潜教授一生皓首穷经、孜孜以求、钻研学术的结晶,也是他几十年来致力于跟踪中国这片黄土地经济运行的结果.他所提出和一贯倡导的经济适度增长与适度调节的理论,对于中国经济的持续、稳定发展具有重大的理论指导意义.书中指出,在我国经济运行中,造成经济增长大起大落的根源在于经济增长速度和经济效益严重的脱节和失调,以经济效益为中心保持经济适度增长势在必行,但是要真正实现经济适度增长,政府实行适度调节是十分必要的.可见,适度调节理论是其宏观调控的核心.     

Governing Poverty in a Neoliberal Age: New Labour and the Case of Financial Exclusion

In the UK, from the 1990s, the concept of financial exclusion emerged as a focus of policymaking concern. In part, this reflects the growing scale and complexity of personal finance markets and how these are increasingly interwoven into the everyday lives of individuals. However, it is also argued that the development of the concept of financial exclusion reflects preeminent neoliberal discourses that emphasise the centrality of individual responsibility, autonomy and consumer participation within markets. In 2004 the then Labour government, in conjunction with academic experts, financial institutions and other organisations, established a project of financial inclusion in relation to three key domains: banking, affordable credit and financial capability. The consequence, it is suggested here, has not been so much to alleviate inequality as to nurture the poor to be precautionary, risk averse financial subjects. This stands in contrast with the virtues of enterprise and risk-taking called up in middle-class investor subjects.     

弹性退休年龄改革和养老金缺口的弥补:基于人力资本理论

老职工退出劳动领域时点其人力资本存量和新职工刚进入劳动领域时点的人力资本存量应该相等,所以应该采用弹性退休年龄的改革,从增加积累和减少支出二方面来弥补养老金的缺口。用保险精算原理得出了退休年龄和退休给付额之间的对应关系,并提出相应的政策建议。     

Australia: The Conning of Age

Australia faces a relatively favourable demographic future: ageing is proceeding at a slower pace here, the pattern of the labour force ageing is conducive to restructuring in the intermediate future, and a well-established immigration policy can be used to accommodate demographics with social and economic goals. The financing of social services for the aged will produce fewer concerns here partly because of less immediate demographic pressures and partly because of the orientation of the age-pension system. Provided there are increasing investments in today's youth, then chances of longer term productivity retardation from ageing will be lessened and the necessary funding base for aged welfare secured.     

行政区划调整对城市地域结构演变的影响——以江苏省淮安市为例

分析了淮安市行政区划调整及其对城市地域结构演变的影响过程,将行政区划调整对城市地域结构演变的影响划分为两种类型。一是引导性调整,即通过行政区划调整引导城市的发展方向,影响着城市的地域结构特征。1964年淮阴县与清江市的县市分治,1971年淮阴县政府驻地北迁王营镇,牵引了淮安主城市区近30年的南北向发展。2001年的三淮一体行政区划调整,又引导着主城区东南向扩张与楚州城区的北向发展,并在两个城区之间形成新产业空间与生态新城,强烈地影响着城市的地域结构。二是适应性调整,即在城市发展到一定阶段以后,通过行政区划调整的手段,能够破解城市化进程中的一些结构性、体制性矛盾。2001年的三淮一体行政区划调整,将原淮阴县城并入主城区,不仅解决了市县同城问题,为城市空间扩张提供了新的增长空间,也适应了市区与县城连为一体的现实。行政区划调整对城市地域结构演变影响的作用机理主要为三个方面,即通过改变城市辖区范围,进而改变城市经济规模与发展能力影响城市地域结构,通过城市规划工具影响城市地域结构的演变,通过城镇原来的空间格局影响城市地域结构的演变。     

The family gap and family friendly policies: the case of Norway

Norway has among the most generous family policies in the world. The most recent is the cash-for-care reform, which was implemented in 1998. We answer two main questions in this article: What is the level of the family gap in such a generous regime and how has it developed as a consequence of the latest reform? Results suggest that the family gap is rather modest in Norway compared to many other countries and we find no evidence of a worsening of the gap in recent years. A positive interpretation of these results is that the Norwegian labour market is fairly flexible, in the sense that it seems to be able to absorb even more generous family policies.