Moritz Schularick – författare

An authoritative guide to the new economics of our crisis-filled century. Published in collaboration with the Institute for New Economic Thinking.The 2008 financial crisis was a seismic event that laid bare how financial institutions’ instabilities can have devastating effects on societies and economies. COVID-19 brought similar financial devastation at the beginning of 2020 and once more massive interventions by central banks were needed to heed off the collapse of the financial system. All of which begs the question: why is our financial system so fragile and vulnerable that it needs government support so often? For a generation of economists who have risen to prominence since 2008, these events have defined not only how they view financial instability, but financial markets more broadly. Leveraged brings together these voices to take stock of what we have learned about the costs and causes of financial fragility and to offer a new canonical framework for understanding it. Their message: the origins of financial instability in modern economies run deeper than the technical debates around banking regulation, countercyclical capital buffers, or living wills for financial institutions. Leveraged offers a fundamentally new picture of how financial institutions and societies coexist, for better or worse.  The essays here mark a new starting point for research in financial economics. As we muddle through the effects of a second financial crisis in this young century, Leveraged provides a road map and a research agenda for the future.

An authoritative guide to the new economics of our crisis-filled century. Published in collaboration with the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The 2008 financial crisis was a seismic event that laid bare how financial institutions’ instabilities can have devastating effects on societies and economies. COVID-19 brought similar financial devastation at the beginning of 2020 and once more massive interventions by central banks were needed to heed off the collapse of the financial system. All of which begs the question: why is our financial system so fragile and vulnerable that it needs government support so often?  For a generation of economists who have risen to prominence since 2008, these events have defined not only how they view financial instability, but financial markets more broadly. Leveraged brings together these voices to take stock of what we have learned about the costs and causes of financial fragility and to offer a new canonical framework for understanding it. Their message: the origins of financial instability in modern economies run deeper than the technical debates around banking regulation, countercyclical capital buffers, or living wills for financial institutions. Leveraged offers a fundamentally new picture of how financial institutions and societies coexist, for better or worse.   The essays here mark a new starting point for research in financial economics. As we muddle through the effects of a second financial crisis in this young century, Leveraged provides a road map and a research agenda for the future.

Moritz Schularick analysiert die wirtschaftspolitischen Chancen und Risiken der finanziellen Globalisierung aus historischer Perspektive. Im Mittelpunkt der Studie stehen die Finanzbeziehungen zwischen Reich und Arm in zwei Phasen globaler Kapitalmarktintegration - in den drei Jahrzehnten des klassischen Goldstandards (1880-1914) und in der Gegenwart (1990-2004). Der erste Teil der Studie arbeitet signifikante Unterschiede in den Strukturen der finanziellen Globalisierung heraus, insbesondere das weitaus höhere Niveau der Kapitalverflechtung zwischen Reich und Arm vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Im zweiten und dritten Teil des Buches identifiziert der Autor die wichtigsten Ursachen für diesen Unterschied: die bessere Ausstattung der Weltwirtschaft mit öffentlichen Gütern, welche als Nebenprodukt des europäischen Imperialismus die Investitionsrisiken gesenkt haben, sowie die monetäre Stabilität unter dem Goldstandard. Auf der Grundlage dieser Ergebnisse greift der Autor die politische und wissenschaftliche Diskussion über die ökonomischen Chancen der finanziellen Globalierung für Entwicklungsländer auf. Die Geschichte der ersten Globalisierung lehrt zwar, daß finanzielle Globalisierung grundsätzlich einen wichtigen Beitrag zur globalen Entwicklung leisten kann. Vertragssicherheit und monetäre Stabilität waren die institutionellen Voraussetzungen, die den lehrbuchmäßigen Ressourcentransfer von Reich nach Arm in der ersten Globalisierung ermöglicht haben. Diese sind aber heute nicht mehr in vergleichbarem Maße gegeben. Massive Kapitalflüsse von Reich nach Arm, wie sie zwischen 1880 und 1914 zu beobachten waren, sind daher heute nicht zu erwarten.