The End of Investment Bank Capitalism? An Economic Geography of Financial Jobs and Power
研究了1978至2008年美国金融业的就业、薪酬和权力关系,发现投资银行是证券业扩张和收入不平等加剧的关键,并深度参与影子银行体系,最终引发全球金融危机。
abstract This article investigates employment patterns, remuneration, and power relations in the U.S. financial sector between 1978 and 2008. It demonstrates that investment banking has played a central part in the securities industry, which has been by far the most expansive segment of the U.S. financial sector and a significant contributor to growing income inequality. The power of investment banking has risen over the past 30 years under the conditions of the growing demand for investment services, technological changes, deregulation, and globalization. Investment banks were at the heart of the shadow banking system, inventing many of the products used by it and often disguising its operation, thus contributing decisively to the outbreak of the global financial crisis of 2007–9. With leading U.S. investment banks converted into bank holding companies and the threat of reregulation, the future of investment banking is uncertain. One area of uncertainty is the banks' relationship with sovereign wealth funds, which involves both opportunities and challenges. The article identifies the economic geography of investment banking as one of the keys to understanding the dynamics of the contemporary world economy and promotes a mesolevel approach to geographies of finance.