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Africa Dependency theory Development Finance Imperialism Publications

Beyond financialisation: the longue durée of finance and production in the Global South (new article)

I’m very happy to finally have this open access article “Beyond financialisation: the longue durée of finance and production in the Global South” out in the Cambridge Journal of Economics (coauthored with Kai Koddebrock and Ndongo Samba Sylla). I summarize the article in this twitter thread.

Here is the article abstract:

One of the central premises of the literature on financialisation is that we have been living in a new era of capitalism, characterised by a historical shift in the finance-production nexus. Finance has expanded to a disproportionate economic size and, more importantly, has divorced from productive economic pursuits. In this paper, we explore these claims of ‘expansion’ and ‘divorce’ based on a longue durée analysis of the link between finance and production in Senegal and Ghana. As such, we de-centre the dominant approach to financialisation. Seen from the South, we argue that although there has been expansion of financial motives and practices the ‘divorce’ between the financial and the productive economy cannot be considered a new empirical phenomenon having occurred during the last decades and even less an epochal shift of the capitalist system. The tendency for finance to neglect the needs of the domestic productive sector has been the structural operation of finance in many parts of the Global South over the last 150 years. Therefore, one cannot put forward a theory of the evolution of finance under capitalism without taking these crucial historical insights into account.

The article is a part of a two-part Special Issue on ‘Financialisation in Developing and Emerging Economies: Manifestations, Drivers and Implications’ in CJE, edited by Carolina Alves, Bruno Bonizzi and Annina Kaltenbrunner. Read their introduction to the first part here.

Categories
Dependency theory Development Finance Economic Development Heterodox Economics Imperialism Publications

International financial subordination: a critical research agenda (new article)

I have a new article in the Review of International Political Economy with the fabulous co-author team of Ilias Alami, Carolina Alves, Bruno Bonizzi, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Kai Koddenbrock and Jeff Powell. The article (open access) outlines a research agenda for understanding international financial subordination by drawing on the heterodox traditions of dependency theory, Marxism, and Post-Keynesianism.

Categories
Book review Decolonizing Economics Dependency theory Development Finance

Money Power and Financial Capital from a Decolonial Perspective (book review)

I reviewed Ilias Alami’s book Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets for a book symposium organized by Afronomicslaw. In the review, I link the book’s approach to debates about dependency theory and decolonizing economics. Read the review here.

Categories
Dependency theory Development Finance Economic Development Publications

International financial subordination: a critical research agenda (working paper)

I have a new working paper in the Greenwich Papers in Political Economy series with the fabulous and rich co-author team: Ilias Alami, Carolina Alves, Bruno Bonizzi, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Kai Kodddenbrock and Jeff Powell. Together we’ve been working on systematizing and defining a critical research agenda on international financial subordination for a while now. We welcome feedback.

Categories
Africa Dependency theory Development Finance Economic Development Imperialism Presentations Video

Video: Finance and Imperialism in Senegal and Ghana

In April, I had the pleasure of speaking at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) seminar series. I drew on both my research on dependency theory as a research programme and my work on finance in imperialism in Senegal and Ghana (with Kai Koddenbrock and Ndongo Samba Sylla). The talk was chaired by Antonio Andreoni (IIPP), and Sophie Van Huellen (SOAS) was the discussant.

Categories
Blog Development Finance Imperialism

No More Global Debt Inequalities (blog post)

I wrote an essay on global debt inequalities with Jayati Ghosh for Progressive International. Read the full essay here. The essay is part of the series “A Vision of Debt Justice” of Progressive International’s Debt Justice Blueprint.

Categories
Africa Development Finance Economic Development Publications

New article: Financial subordination and uneven financialisation in 21st century Africa

I recently published a new article in Community Development, along with Kai Koddenbrock and Ndongo Samba Sylla. In the article, Financial subordination and uneven financialisation in 21st century Africa, we ask how the global process of financialization has unfolded across the continent and what it means for relations of dependence. The empirical analysis of aggregate country data shows that financialization is, at best, an uneven and patchy process in the region, not a general structural shift in the way capital accumulation is organized.

Categories
Africa Development Finance Economic Development Imperialism Publications

New working paper: Beyond Financialisation – The Need for a Longue Durée Understanding of Finance in Imperialism

Along with Kai Koddenbrock and Ndongo Samba Sylla, I recently published the pre-print Beyond Financialisation – The Need for a Longue Durée Understanding of Finance in Imperialism on OSF Preprints. This is part of an ongoing research project we are working on and we welcome any comments on the paper!

Categories
Blog Development Finance Imperialism

An Anti-Imperialist Call for Debt Justice (Statement)

As a member of the Debt Justice Working Group of Progressive International, I recently published this statement on what I find essential for any progressive international fight for debt justice: An Anti-Imperialist Call for Debt Justice.

Categories
Development Finance Economic Development In the media Interviews Podcasts

Podcast on Trade and RCTs (Danish)

Screenshot 2020-05-30 at 00.33.20

In April, I was interviewed for two episodes of the brilliant Danish Economics podcast Boblen. One episode was on microfinance and the other on trade.