Financial Elites and European Banking

The ambiguities of the globalized economy—epitomized by growing levels of inequality exacerbated by the 2007–8 financial debacle—have generated a feeling of disbelief towards experts and hostility towards elites. Financial elites, in particular, have become one of public opinion’s favourite targets because of their responsibilities in triggering the financial crisis, the very high compensations enjoyed before and after the 2008 Lehman collapse, and the relatively obscure nature of their activity. What has been the role played by financial elites (and financial experts) in different European societies and markets over time? What have been their links with other national/international elites? What has been their contribution to the recent financial collapse, and how does this compare to previous crises? How have financial elites adjusted to, or influenced, the process of evolution of the financial system’s regulatory framework over time? This book—a collection of chapters dedicated to the European financial elites—answers these questions through historical comparisons and country and cross-country case studies. The volume provides a timely contribution to the current debate on the role of financial elites/financial experts within society and the markets. The focus on European bankers complements the post-crisis literature mainly focused on American (or Anglo-Saxon) bankers and allows for a fruitful comparison between the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 702-704

Kim Oosterlinck of Université Libre de Bruxelles reviews “Financial Elites and European Banking: Historical Perspectives,” edited by Youssef Cassis and Giuseppe Telesca. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Nine papers look at the role of financial elites in different European societies and markets over time, providing historical comparisons and cross-country analysis of their adaptation and contribution to the transformation of the national and international regulatory/cultural context in the wake of a crisis in a long-term perspective.”


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Carlotta del Sordo ◽  
Massimo Fornasari ◽  
Rebecca L. Orelli

This paper aims to fill a gap in the scant literature on accounting practices in non-Anglo-Saxon countries in under- researched periods by exploring the Monte di Pietà of Ravenna, an Italian non-profit institution. The research draws upon original 18th and 19th century documents found in the Monte di Pietà of Ravenna and offers an internal perspective of the development of accounting technology before and after an ‘intacco’ episode, thus attempting to shed light on the significance of accounting in that context. The originality of the Ravenna episode, compared to other similar ones experienced by Monti, consists in its extension over time and in its recurrence by three generations of administrators linked by kinship bonds, who systematically damaged the Monte between 1797 and 1837. The new form of control of the Monte’s activities after the “intacco” based on accounting technologies, and realised a new relation between power and knowledge in which accounting was the tool to exercise disciplinary power, thus making people more governable. Accounting technologies relied upon a more articulated financial statement that included the institute’s transactions and events.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Bradbury ◽  
Julie A. Harrison

SYNOPSIS This paper provides a commentary on the results of a content analysis of dissenting opinions in Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standards. During 1973 to 2009 the FASB issued 171 financial accounting standards. Half of these standards contained dissenting opinions. We identify and classify dissenting opinions based on whether the arguments are conceptual (conceptual framework-related or non-framework-related) or non-conceptual (e.g., scope, due process). We examine whether the types and frequencies of arguments change over time in response to the development of the FASB's conceptual framework and provide a commentary on the role of these opinions and the usefulness of analyzing them for research and practice. Our main finding from our analysis is that conceptual arguments are the most frequently used in the dissenting opinions, both before and after the introduction of the conceptual framework. However, of note is that many of the arguments raised, while conceptual in nature, are not from the conceptual framework. We suggest this indicates either a need for the conceptual framework language to be more widely used by the authors of dissenting opinions and/or the emergence of new conceptual arguments that may be relevant for future revisions of the conceptual framework.


2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 771-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony B Atkinson ◽  
Andrea Brandolini

This paper examines the role of secondary data-sets in empirical economic research, taking the field of income distribution as a case study. We illustrate problems faced by users of “secondary” statistics, showing how both cross-country comparisons and time-series analysis can depend sensitively on the choice of data. After describing the genealogy of secondary data-sets on income inequality, we consider the main methodological issues and discuss their implications for comparisons of income inequality across OECD countries and over time. The lessons to be drawn for the construction and use of secondary data-sets are summarized at the end of the paper.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Eaton ◽  
Jonas Hedman ◽  
Rony Medaglia

The growing phenomenon of financialization influences an array of societal dimensions that go beyond the economic realm, to include public policy-making and information technology (IT). This study presents a cross-country analysis of the emergence of national electronic identification (e-ID) solutions as the result of interaction between the financial and the public sector in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Drawing on on-line sources, documents, and interviews with key actors in the three cases, we adopt a cross-disciplinary perspective by applying the lens of collective action theory to identify the role of interests, resources, and governance in the emergence of national e-ID solutions. Findings show that different governance solutions can emerge as the result of the convergence of interests and of interdependency of resources between the actors over time. We contribute to research on financialization and IT by proposing a dialectic process model and identifying five mechanisms that drive the process forward.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Castellani ◽  
Susanna D’Oria ◽  
Anna Diana ◽  
Angela Maria Polizzi ◽  
Sante Di Gioia ◽  
...  

Abstract The role of colony stimulating factors (CSFs) in cystic fibrosis (CF) circulating neutrophils has not been thoroughly evaluated, considering that the neutrophil burden of lung inflammation in these subjects is very high. The aim of this study was to assess granulocyte-CSF (G-CSF) and granulocyte-macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF) levels in CF patients in various clinical conditions and how these cytokines impact on activation and priming of neutrophils. G-CSF and GM-CSF levels were measured in sputum and serum samples of stable CF patients (n = 21) and in CF patients with acute exacerbation before and after a course of antibiotic therapy (n = 19). CSFs were tested on non CF neutrophils to investigate their effects on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, degranulation (CD66b, elastase, lactoferrin, MMP-9), and chemotaxis. At very low concentrations found in CF patients (0.005–0.1 ng/ml), both cytokines inhibited ROS production, while higher concentrations (1–5 ng/ml) exerted a stimulatory effect. While either CSF induced elastase and MMP-9 secretion, lactoferrin levels were increased only by G-CSF. Chemotaxis was inhibited by GM-CSF, but was increased by G-CSF. However, when present together at low concentrations, CSFs increased basal and fMLP-stimulated ROS production and chemotaxis. These results suggest the CSF levels that circulating neutrophils face before extravasating into the lungs of CF patients may enhance their function contributing to the airway damage.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Alamgir Hossain ◽  
M. Ashrafuzzaman ◽  
A. K. M. Zakir Hossain ◽  
Mohd. Razi Ismail ◽  
H. Koyama

Aluminum (Al) sensitive wheat cultivar kalyansona was grown for 14 d in a range of Ca solution (125, 625, and 2500 μM) plus other nutrients without Al. At 14 d after Ca treatment, half of these plants were harvested (H1), and the rest of the plants were exposed to 100 μM Al for additional 6 d and harvested (H2). Severe Al injury was found only in the plants with the lowest supply of Ca before Al treatment. Aluminum concentration in the apoplastic fluid was very high at 125 μM Ca probably because the plasma membrane of some of the cells was destroyed due to the attack of 100 μM Al. Aluminum content in roots decreased with increasing supply of Ca before Al treatment. Calcium content decreased drastically at harvest (H2) in the plants with 100 μM Al. Under Al stress conditions, the plant responded to Al in different ways due to not only the different Ca supply but also the variation of Ca content in the plant tissues. Actually, the plants having the largest Ca content in the roots before Al treatment can receive less Al injury during Al treatment. To substantiate this idea, a companion study was conducted to investigate the effects of 2500 μM Ca supply during, before, and after 100 μM Al treatment on root growth. The results indicated clearly that exogenous Ca supply before Al treatment is able to alleviate Al injury but less effective than Ca supply during Al treatment.


Author(s):  
Randall Morck ◽  
Gloria Y. Tian

Family-controlled pyramidal business groups were important in Canada early in the twentieth century, amid rapid catch-up industrialization, but largely gave way to widely held freestanding firms by mid-century. In the 1970s and early 1980s—an era of high inflation, financial reversal, unprecedented state intervention, and explicit emulation of continental European institutions—pyramidal groups abruptly regained prominence. The largest of these were politically well-connected and highly leveraged. The two largest collapsed in the early 1990s in a recession characterized by very high real interest rates. The smaller groups that survived were more vertically integrated and less diversified at the time. Widely held freestanding firms and Anglo-Saxon concepts of the role of the state soon regained predominance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 462-462
Author(s):  
Shiro Furuya ◽  
James Raymo

Abstract Despite growing media, policy, and research attention to loneliness, it remains an understudied dimension of inequality in demography. Additionally, research on loneliness often fails, both methodologically and conceptually, to distinguish loneliness from social isolation. This is an important limitation given the positive correlation between measures of these two distinct concepts, a relationship that may be particularly relevant in collectivistic societies. This study focuses on Japan, describing the synthetic cohort duration of exposure to loneliness at older ages, with and without adjusting for the correlation between loneliness and social isolation. Combining life tables from the Human Mortality Database with individual data from the National Survey of Japanese Elderly, we calculated isolation-adjusted lonely life expectancies. We also evaluated regional and educational differences in isolation-adjusted lonely life expectancies. Results showed significant differences in lonely life expectancy before and after adjusting for social isolation; however, the attention to social isolation did little to alter our general understandings of trends and differentials in lonely life expectancy. In contrast to public perceptions of growing loneliness, we find that lonely life expectancy is short among older Japanese and has not increased over time. Additionally, we found no clear regional nor educational differences in isolation-adjusted lonely life expectancy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 520-550
Author(s):  
Davide Orsini

AbstractThis study draws on ethnographic and archival evidence from the Italian Archipelago of La Maddalena, offshore from the northeastern corner of Sardinia, where in 1972 the U.S. Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines. It addresses two questions: (1) How do non-experts make sense of radiological risk absent knowledge and classified information about its instantiations and consequences? (2) How do objectifications of risk change and stabilize within the same community over time? STS scholarship has emphasized the epistemic and relational dimensions of lay/expert controversies over risk assessment. Many case studies, mostly focused on the Anglo-Saxon world, have assumed lay and expert ways of knowing are incompatible due to clashing cultural identities. I use Keane's concept of “semiotic ideologies” and Peircean semiotic theory to critically reassess the validity of that assumption and examine the role of material evidence in processes of signification to explain how experts and non-experts fix, challenge, and negotiate the meanings of radiological risk in sociotechnical controversies. I critically review empirical studies and analyze ethnographic and archival data to advance a set of methodological and substantive arguments: meanings of risk change as new signs become available for interpretation; and meanings of risk are semiotically regimented: their emergence or silencing depend upon the power relations in place in a given community and organizational efforts to assemble coherent technopolitical arguments. I call this set of organizational practices “politics of coherence.”


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document