Pub Date : 2024-04-27DOI: 10.1177/10245294241242258
Natascha van der Zwan, Arjen van der Heide
The last 20 years have seen the emergence and proliferation of transnational sustainable finance initiatives (hereafter: TSFI). From associations like the Principles of Responsible Investment to pledges like the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, investors have connected with each other and with other kinds of organisations in transnational fora dedicated to sustainable finance. Taking inspiration from political economy scholarship on global corporate networks, we apply a network perspective to the transnational governance of sustainable finance, examining the overlaps between investors’ membership in TSFI. In particular, we aim to identify those investors’ that hold a large number of TSFI membership (collectors), that connect centrally located TSFI with those at the margins (mediators), and that take on active roles within TSFI (performers). Analysing membership data for 30 TSFI, totalling 10.602 observations, at three analytical levels, we identify a group of 21 investors holding core positions in the global network. The majority of these investors are active in asset management and located in Nordic or continental European political economies. The predominance of some of the world’s largest investors in our three member categories suggests that the transnational governance of sustainable finance relies in part on the activities of actors that are associated with harmful financial practices. Nevertheless, the simultaneous presence of publicly owned enterprises on our list of most connected members also indicates the importance of public leadership in the transnational governance of sustainable finance.
{"title":"Investors as members in transnational sustainable finance initiatives: Collectors, mediators and performers","authors":"Natascha van der Zwan, Arjen van der Heide","doi":"10.1177/10245294241242258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241242258","url":null,"abstract":"The last 20 years have seen the emergence and proliferation of transnational sustainable finance initiatives (hereafter: TSFI). From associations like the Principles of Responsible Investment to pledges like the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, investors have connected with each other and with other kinds of organisations in transnational fora dedicated to sustainable finance. Taking inspiration from political economy scholarship on global corporate networks, we apply a network perspective to the transnational governance of sustainable finance, examining the overlaps between investors’ membership in TSFI. In particular, we aim to identify those investors’ that hold a large number of TSFI membership (collectors), that connect centrally located TSFI with those at the margins (mediators), and that take on active roles within TSFI (performers). Analysing membership data for 30 TSFI, totalling 10.602 observations, at three analytical levels, we identify a group of 21 investors holding core positions in the global network. The majority of these investors are active in asset management and located in Nordic or continental European political economies. The predominance of some of the world’s largest investors in our three member categories suggests that the transnational governance of sustainable finance relies in part on the activities of actors that are associated with harmful financial practices. Nevertheless, the simultaneous presence of publicly owned enterprises on our list of most connected members also indicates the importance of public leadership in the transnational governance of sustainable finance.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140811109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-13DOI: 10.1177/10245294241245512
Vanessa Endrejat
Off-balance-sheet policies are an important but understudied phenomenon that emerged from a technical subtlety in the calculation of public debt statistics. Taking the case of an exemplary European off-balance-sheet policy, public–private partnerships (PPPs), this paper analyzes the technocratic processes that allow the emergence of such debt-neutral instruments. In the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis, off-balance-sheet policies have become an important policy tool for Member States in the European Economic and Monetary Union, enabling them to strike a balance between the perceived ‘public investment gap’ and the mantra of fiscal consolidation. The case study shows how the lack of political solutions to Europe’s investment-consolidation conundrum leaves it to technical experts to find workable solutions within the existing rules. The off-balance-sheet status of PPPs came under threat in 2014 but was reaffirmed through a coordinated effort by two strange bedfellows: the European Investment Bank (EIB), a promoter of PPPs, and Eurostat, the European authority responsible for public debt and deficit indicators. I argue that Eurostat and the EIB have entered into strategic cooperation to increase each other’s room for manoeuvre, diffuse political pressure and avoid bureaucratic overload. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of technocrats and their expertise, which shape the mutual relations between fiscal constraints and financialized investment policies in the European investor states.
{"title":"Off-balance-sheet policies to the rescue: The role of statistical expertise for European public–private partnerships","authors":"Vanessa Endrejat","doi":"10.1177/10245294241245512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241245512","url":null,"abstract":"Off-balance-sheet policies are an important but understudied phenomenon that emerged from a technical subtlety in the calculation of public debt statistics. Taking the case of an exemplary European off-balance-sheet policy, public–private partnerships (PPPs), this paper analyzes the technocratic processes that allow the emergence of such debt-neutral instruments. In the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis, off-balance-sheet policies have become an important policy tool for Member States in the European Economic and Monetary Union, enabling them to strike a balance between the perceived ‘public investment gap’ and the mantra of fiscal consolidation. The case study shows how the lack of political solutions to Europe’s investment-consolidation conundrum leaves it to technical experts to find workable solutions within the existing rules. The off-balance-sheet status of PPPs came under threat in 2014 but was reaffirmed through a coordinated effort by two strange bedfellows: the European Investment Bank (EIB), a promoter of PPPs, and Eurostat, the European authority responsible for public debt and deficit indicators. I argue that Eurostat and the EIB have entered into strategic cooperation to increase each other’s room for manoeuvre, diffuse political pressure and avoid bureaucratic overload. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of technocrats and their expertise, which shape the mutual relations between fiscal constraints and financialized investment policies in the European investor states.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140561954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-04DOI: 10.1177/10245294241242843
Damien Piron
This paper focuses on a neglected yet crucial feature of public investment policies in the European Union (EU): the politics of statistical harmonization and off-balance-sheet policymaking. Drawing upon the instrument-centred approach and the sociology of quantification and accounting, it refines the concept of ‘fiscal ecosystem’ by highlighting the controversial and evolving nature of the boundary between on- and off-balance-sheet recording. It is argued that the accounting aggregates giving effect to EU fiscal rules favour marketized and privatized modes of public service delivery, including ‘market-based but state-led’ off-balance-sheet investment tools such as public–private partnerships. However, the effectiveness of this policy has decisively hinged upon the work of harmonizing public finance statistics carried out by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the EU. This contested process has led to acute power struggles between statistical agencies and governments, and a substantial increase of Eurostat’s power in the wake of the Eurozone crisis. The comparison of the two main Belgian regions highlights contrasting responses to this European strategy of governing (sub)national investment policies through fiscal rules and statistical harmonization: while Flanders has consolidated the financialization of its investment policy, Wallonia has so far opposed this trend. This demonstrates that although financialization of public investment is promoted by EU fiscal integration, it is not inevitable; governments do have some leeway to follow an alternative path. As Wallonia also benefited from extraordinary economic and political circumstances, it remains to be seen whether its distinctive investment policy will withstand rising interest rates and tighter fiscal rules.
{"title":"Governing public investment in Europe: The politics of off-balance-sheet policymaking, the rise of Eurostat and contrasted regional policies in Belgium","authors":"Damien Piron","doi":"10.1177/10245294241242843","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241242843","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on a neglected yet crucial feature of public investment policies in the European Union (EU): the politics of statistical harmonization and off-balance-sheet policymaking. Drawing upon the instrument-centred approach and the sociology of quantification and accounting, it refines the concept of ‘fiscal ecosystem’ by highlighting the controversial and evolving nature of the boundary between on- and off-balance-sheet recording. It is argued that the accounting aggregates giving effect to EU fiscal rules favour marketized and privatized modes of public service delivery, including ‘market-based but state-led’ off-balance-sheet investment tools such as public–private partnerships. However, the effectiveness of this policy has decisively hinged upon the work of harmonizing public finance statistics carried out by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the EU. This contested process has led to acute power struggles between statistical agencies and governments, and a substantial increase of Eurostat’s power in the wake of the Eurozone crisis. The comparison of the two main Belgian regions highlights contrasting responses to this European strategy of governing (sub)national investment policies through fiscal rules and statistical harmonization: while Flanders has consolidated the financialization of its investment policy, Wallonia has so far opposed this trend. This demonstrates that although financialization of public investment is promoted by EU fiscal integration, it is not inevitable; governments do have some leeway to follow an alternative path. As Wallonia also benefited from extraordinary economic and political circumstances, it remains to be seen whether its distinctive investment policy will withstand rising interest rates and tighter fiscal rules.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.1177/10245294241242627
Juan Barredo, Luis Buendía
In the literature on financialized growth, two models are often presented as complementary but opposing: some countries drive their domestic demand through debt, while others grow on the basis of exports. In this research, we identify Sweden as a country that in the midst of the financial euphoria preceding 2008 combined these two models simultaneously. By identifying this “debt&export-led” growth model, we add richness and taxonomic complexity to the literature on financialized growth models. That said, this research contributes especially to the debate on the Swedish growth model, revealing a “hybrid” model that resulted from the interaction of two sets of factors: i) the presence of a successful exports sector, driven by a commensurate regulatory framework in a context of strong international demand; and ii) the manner in which financialization operated in Sweden, through a historic increase in private debt levels simultaneous with a partial dismantling of the welfare state.
{"title":"Financial expansion in Sweden (2000–2008): A hybrid “debt&export-led” growth model","authors":"Juan Barredo, Luis Buendía","doi":"10.1177/10245294241242627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241242627","url":null,"abstract":"In the literature on financialized growth, two models are often presented as complementary but opposing: some countries drive their domestic demand through debt, while others grow on the basis of exports. In this research, we identify Sweden as a country that in the midst of the financial euphoria preceding 2008 combined these two models simultaneously. By identifying this “debt&export-led” growth model, we add richness and taxonomic complexity to the literature on financialized growth models. That said, this research contributes especially to the debate on the Swedish growth model, revealing a “hybrid” model that resulted from the interaction of two sets of factors: i) the presence of a successful exports sector, driven by a commensurate regulatory framework in a context of strong international demand; and ii) the manner in which financialization operated in Sweden, through a historic increase in private debt levels simultaneous with a partial dismantling of the welfare state.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140300666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Growth model scholarship posits that wage-led growth has become increasingly difficult to achieve in advanced capitalist economies since the demise of Fordism. The constraints to the pursuit of policies compatible with wage-led growth strategies could be expected to be particularly stringent in peripheral economies, which often rely on price-sensitive exports, suppression of domestic demand, and labour disempowerment to compete in global markets. Yet, empirical experience shows that even advanced peripheral economies that adopted export-led growth strategies have successfully implemented policies intended to raise wages and expand social transfers. How to explain the emergence of such wage-boosting policies in the context of advanced peripheral, export-oriented economies? Drawing on the cases of Israel, Poland, and Spain since the Great Recession, we identify one common mechanism accounting for this unexpected outcome: the contingent political incorporation of organized labour through a cross-class political exchange in the coalition supporting a country’s growth strategy. We identify two scope conditions that enable the implementation of such policies in unlikely contexts. Domestic political instability, coupled with a contingent relaxation of prior economic constraints, leads governing parties of both left and right orientation to activate political exchange with unions, resulting in the implementation of diverse policies boosting household income. These policies also increase the role of domestic consumption as a key growth driver. Nonetheless, the depth and durability of such changes remain conditioned. The findings develop our understanding of the role of, and structural limits to, organized labour’s agency to promote wage growth in advanced peripheral economies.
{"title":"Putting wage growth back on the table: Labour incorporation, political exchange, and wage-boosting policies in advanced peripheral economies","authors":"Assaf Shlomo Bondy, Erez Maggor, Arianna Tassinari","doi":"10.1177/10245294241226733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241226733","url":null,"abstract":"Growth model scholarship posits that wage-led growth has become increasingly difficult to achieve in advanced capitalist economies since the demise of Fordism. The constraints to the pursuit of policies compatible with wage-led growth strategies could be expected to be particularly stringent in peripheral economies, which often rely on price-sensitive exports, suppression of domestic demand, and labour disempowerment to compete in global markets. Yet, empirical experience shows that even advanced peripheral economies that adopted export-led growth strategies have successfully implemented policies intended to raise wages and expand social transfers. How to explain the emergence of such wage-boosting policies in the context of advanced peripheral, export-oriented economies? Drawing on the cases of Israel, Poland, and Spain since the Great Recession, we identify one common mechanism accounting for this unexpected outcome: the contingent political incorporation of organized labour through a cross-class political exchange in the coalition supporting a country’s growth strategy. We identify two scope conditions that enable the implementation of such policies in unlikely contexts. Domestic political instability, coupled with a contingent relaxation of prior economic constraints, leads governing parties of both left and right orientation to activate political exchange with unions, resulting in the implementation of diverse policies boosting household income. These policies also increase the role of domestic consumption as a key growth driver. Nonetheless, the depth and durability of such changes remain conditioned. The findings develop our understanding of the role of, and structural limits to, organized labour’s agency to promote wage growth in advanced peripheral economies.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140172618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-05DOI: 10.1177/10245294241237366
Juan Bogliaccini, Aldo Madariaga
Leftist governments in peripheral economies have usually faced problems fulfilling their distributive mandate. Because of their inability to earn foreign exchange to pay for imports or service their debt, these governments often ended in epic balance of payments crises and renounced their electoral programs while embracing stabilization and fiscal austerity. This reflects the fact that economic growth and distribution in peripheral economies are fundamentally balance-of-payments-constrained. How can we understand variation in the form of distributive strategies advanced by left parties in government if they are subject to balance of payments constraints? And how can we understand the emergence of different growth models within those constraints? This article contributes to understanding the politics of peripheral growth models by studying the variation in left government distributive and growth strategies in the context of balance-of-payments (BoP) constrained growth. While the BoP constraints are real and challenging and the push for monetary and fiscal responsibility has been blunt, we argue that the extent to which governing left parties build linkages with grassroots and subordinated groups, and extant institutional architectures, allow spaces for political agency that leftist governments can use to pursue distinct distributive and growth strategies. In turn, these strategies allow for diverse ways of managing the macroeconomic implications of the BoP constraints.
{"title":"Leftist governments, distributive strategies, and the politics of balance of payments-constrained growth in Chile and Uruguay","authors":"Juan Bogliaccini, Aldo Madariaga","doi":"10.1177/10245294241237366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241237366","url":null,"abstract":"Leftist governments in peripheral economies have usually faced problems fulfilling their distributive mandate. Because of their inability to earn foreign exchange to pay for imports or service their debt, these governments often ended in epic balance of payments crises and renounced their electoral programs while embracing stabilization and fiscal austerity. This reflects the fact that economic growth and distribution in peripheral economies are fundamentally balance-of-payments-constrained. How can we understand variation in the form of distributive strategies advanced by left parties in government if they are subject to balance of payments constraints? And how can we understand the emergence of different growth models within those constraints? This article contributes to understanding the politics of peripheral growth models by studying the variation in left government distributive and growth strategies in the context of balance-of-payments (BoP) constrained growth. While the BoP constraints are real and challenging and the push for monetary and fiscal responsibility has been blunt, we argue that the extent to which governing left parties build linkages with grassroots and subordinated groups, and extant institutional architectures, allow spaces for political agency that leftist governments can use to pursue distinct distributive and growth strategies. In turn, these strategies allow for diverse ways of managing the macroeconomic implications of the BoP constraints.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140055815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1177/10245294241237365
Juan Laborda, Andrés Villena
This paper opens the black box of the role of the state when regulating the process of financialization of a national economy. For this purpose, we firstly study two recent Spanish executives’ closeness and similarity to financial, insurance and real estate sectors – usually identified as the ‘FIRE sector’. We secondly study how the process of specific law production and regulation during two different political terms has significant effects in the finance, insurance, and real estate complex. Our research explains that this specific regulation is related to the evolution of the FIRE sector in Spain, something that reflects the role of state agencies to favour financialization dynamics.
{"title":"‘FIRE’ on the horizon. The role of the state in the process of financialization of a national economy","authors":"Juan Laborda, Andrés Villena","doi":"10.1177/10245294241237365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241237365","url":null,"abstract":"This paper opens the black box of the role of the state when regulating the process of financialization of a national economy. For this purpose, we firstly study two recent Spanish executives’ closeness and similarity to financial, insurance and real estate sectors – usually identified as the ‘FIRE sector’. We secondly study how the process of specific law production and regulation during two different political terms has significant effects in the finance, insurance, and real estate complex. Our research explains that this specific regulation is related to the evolution of the FIRE sector in Spain, something that reflects the role of state agencies to favour financialization dynamics.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140035860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1177/10245294241233093
Fulya Apaydin
This study shows that in peripheral economies that are linked into circuits of global capital on unequal terms, attempts to change the core features of an existing growth regime without broader political support intensify externally induced conflict among the ruling coalition. Under these circumstances, a transition to a new demand regime within a short time frame is more likely to take place via authoritarian intervention when the political cost of repression is lower than the cost of redistribution. In developing these points, the analysis builds on evidence from Turkey: following the 2008 global credit crunch, the Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) domestic demand-led and credit-fueled growth under dependent financialization has experienced a major crisis. However, the subsequent push to replace this regime with a profit-led model with an emphasis on exports worsened the conflict among the political coalition supporting the party as their preferences over monetary policy began to diverge. A temporary resolution of this deepening rift has been possible by way of an authoritarian intervention under R. T. Erdogan’s presidential bid in 2017–18. By situating the debate on the relationship between growth regimes and political institutions, the study further unpacks the nexus between democratic backsliding, dominant social blocs, and economic growth in the periphery of Europe.
本研究表明，在以不平等的条件与全球资本循环相联系的外围经济体中，在没有更广泛的政治支持的情况下试图改变现有增长体制的核心特征，会加剧外部因素在执政联盟中引发的冲突。在这种情况下，当镇压的政治成本低于再分配的成本时，更有可能通过威权干预在短时间内过渡到新的需求体制。在阐述这些观点时，分析以土耳其的证据为基础：2008 年全球信贷紧缩之后，正义与发展党（Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP）在依赖金融化的情况下以国内需求为导向、以信贷为动力的增长经历了一场重大危机。然而，由于支持该党的政治联盟对货币政策的偏好开始出现分歧，随后推动以强调出口的利润主导型模式取代这一制度的做法加剧了他们之间的冲突。在 2017-18 年埃尔多安竞选总统期间，通过威权干预，这一不断加深的裂痕得以暂时化解。通过对增长制度与政治体制之间关系的讨论，本研究进一步解读了欧洲外围地区民主倒退、占主导地位的社会集团与经济增长之间的关系。
{"title":"Repression and growth in the periphery of Europe: The politics of changing growth regime in Turkey","authors":"Fulya Apaydin","doi":"10.1177/10245294241233093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241233093","url":null,"abstract":"This study shows that in peripheral economies that are linked into circuits of global capital on unequal terms, attempts to change the core features of an existing growth regime without broader political support intensify externally induced conflict among the ruling coalition. Under these circumstances, a transition to a new demand regime within a short time frame is more likely to take place via authoritarian intervention when the political cost of repression is lower than the cost of redistribution. In developing these points, the analysis builds on evidence from Turkey: following the 2008 global credit crunch, the Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) domestic demand-led and credit-fueled growth under dependent financialization has experienced a major crisis. However, the subsequent push to replace this regime with a profit-led model with an emphasis on exports worsened the conflict among the political coalition supporting the party as their preferences over monetary policy began to diverge. A temporary resolution of this deepening rift has been possible by way of an authoritarian intervention under R. T. Erdogan’s presidential bid in 2017–18. By situating the debate on the relationship between growth regimes and political institutions, the study further unpacks the nexus between democratic backsliding, dominant social blocs, and economic growth in the periphery of Europe.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139956446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1177/10245294221130432
Joseph Baines, S. Hager
This article examines the role of the Big Three asset management firms – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street – in corporate environmental governance. Specifically, it investigates the Big Three’s relationships with the publicly listed Carbon Majors: a small group of fossil fuels, cement and mining companies responsible for the bulk of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Engaging with the corporate governance concepts of ownership and control, and exit and voice, it charts the rise to prominence of the Big Three, including their environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds, in the ownership of the Carbon Majors. Having established their status as key sources of permanent capital that are unlikely to exit from their investment positions in the world’s most polluting publicly listed corporations, the article examines how control may be exercised through voice by analysing the Big Three’s proxy voting record at Carbon Major annual general meetings. It finds that they more frequently oppose rather than support shareholder resolutions aimed at improving environmental governance and that their voting is more likely to lead to the failure than to the success of these resolutions. Remarkably, there is little to distinguish the proxy voting of the Big Three’s ESG funds from their non-ESG funds. Regardless of whether these resolutions succeeded or failed, they also tend to be narrow in scope and piecemeal in nature. Overall, the article raises serious doubts about the Big Three’s credentials as environmental stewards and argues instead that they are little more than stewards of the status quo of shareholder value maximization.
{"title":"From passive owners to planet savers? Asset managers, carbon majors and the limits of sustainable finance","authors":"Joseph Baines, S. Hager","doi":"10.1177/10245294221130432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294221130432","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the role of the Big Three asset management firms – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street – in corporate environmental governance. Specifically, it investigates the Big Three’s relationships with the publicly listed Carbon Majors: a small group of fossil fuels, cement and mining companies responsible for the bulk of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Engaging with the corporate governance concepts of ownership and control, and exit and voice, it charts the rise to prominence of the Big Three, including their environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds, in the ownership of the Carbon Majors. Having established their status as key sources of permanent capital that are unlikely to exit from their investment positions in the world’s most polluting publicly listed corporations, the article examines how control may be exercised through voice by analysing the Big Three’s proxy voting record at Carbon Major annual general meetings. It finds that they more frequently oppose rather than support shareholder resolutions aimed at improving environmental governance and that their voting is more likely to lead to the failure than to the success of these resolutions. Remarkably, there is little to distinguish the proxy voting of the Big Three’s ESG funds from their non-ESG funds. Regardless of whether these resolutions succeeded or failed, they also tend to be narrow in scope and piecemeal in nature. Overall, the article raises serious doubts about the Big Three’s credentials as environmental stewards and argues instead that they are little more than stewards of the status quo of shareholder value maximization.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47387630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1177/10245294231171631
Julie T. Miao, N. Phelps, Hyung-Gil Kim
Several modes of urban entrepreneurialism, variously composed of central-local, state-market, state-civil society, and domestic-international relations, have been apparent since the 1970s. Drawing inspiration from East Asian developmental states, we argue that it is under the most recent mode of urban entrepreneurialism 3.0 that the urban sources of exports and national economic development have been most fully mobilised by states. We illustrate this export of urban expertise with the case of South Korea’s International Information and Telecommunication Technology Program (ITTP), offered by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which trains future ICT and city leaders from developing countries. We trace the history and effects of the ITTP through original empirical research involving interviews and a survey of graduates from the program. The ITTP is revealing of state intrapreneurialism in the export of sector-specific urban expertise with effects on national brands, new markets and the formation of new institutions. The case of the ITTP is one among a variety of means by which East Asian states in particular have projected urban expertise internationally. It also points to these states’ struggle to coordinate institutions involved in, and generate consensus around, national models of urban expertise to be exported.
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