Sylvia Maxfield

Banks and the False Dichotomy in the Comparative Political Economy of Finance

The wide-ranging varieties of capitalism literature rests on a particular conception of banks and banking that, the authors argue, no longer reflects the reality of modern financial systems. They take advantage of the greater information regarding bank activities revealed by the financial crisis to consider the reality, across eight of the world’s largest developed economies, of the financial power of banks to act as bulwarks against market forces. This article offers a marketbased banking framework that transcends the bank-based/capital market–based dichotomy that dominates comparative political economy’s consideration of financial systems and argues that future cpe research should focus on the activities of banks. By demonstrating how market-based banking increases market influences on the supply of credit, the authors highlight an underappreciated source of financial market pressure on nonfinancial companies (nfc s) that can have a potential impact across the range of issues that the varieties of capitalism (VoC) literature has seen as differentiating national systems. This approach has implications in areas such as labor, welfare, innovation, and flexibility.

Gender and risk: women, risk taking and risk aversion

– Labeling women as risk‐averse limits the positive benefits both women and organizations can gain from their risk taking. The purpose of this paper is to explore womens risk taking and reasons for stereotype persistence in order to inform human resource practice and womens career development., – The paper draws on literature about gender and organizations to identify reasons for the persisting stereotype of womens risk aversion. Utilizing literature and concepts about risk appetite and decision making, the paper evaluates results of the Simmons Gender and Risk Survey database of 661 female managers., – The paper finds evidence of gender neutrality in risk propensity and decision making in specific managerial contexts other than portfolio allocation., – More in‐depth research is needed to explore the gender‐neutral motivators of risk decision making and to explore risk taking in a more diverse sample population., – The paper explores why womens risk taking remains invisible even as they take risks and offers suggestions on how women and organizations may benefit from their risk‐taking activities., – The paper synthesizes evidence on risk taking and gender, and the evidence of female risk taking is an important antidote to persisting stereotypes. The paper outlines reasons for this stereotype persistence and implications for human resource development.

Women entrepreneurs and venture capital: managing the shadow negotiation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptually and empirically explore issues that explain why women entrepreneurs access only a small percentage of venture capital (VC) investment in the USA.Design/methodology/approach – The focus is on the situations women entrepreneurs face, and the strategies they adopt, to successfully fund their high‐growth businesses with venture funding. Rather than looking for answers at the individual level (men v women), the authors focus on the construct of gender and the way that the socially constructed business practices and processes of access to capital may appear neutral and natural but, in fact, may deliver differential consequences to women and men. When entrepreneurs and capital providers are interacting around the terms and particulars of a business venture, they are also participating in a less obvious conversation – an interaction that is call the Shadow Negotiation. Through interviews with women who have been successful or are in the process of accessing V...

An empirical investigation of the financialization convergence hypothesis

ABSTRACT Claims of global homogenization towards a singular model of finance capitalism constitute a “financialization convergence hypothesis” that has not been subject to systematic empirical scrutiny. Using extensive firm-level data we center on the key indicator of firm leverage, and reveal that substantial cross-national and cross-firm variation still persists. We first compare distributions across OECD countries and find no significant evidence of convergence over time. We then assess whether firms classified as prudent by a simple leverage threshold comprise a declining share of total financial assets over time. We find they do not, and that trajectories remain largely distinct. We do find empirical evidence of financialization convergence in two specific areas. First, there was convergence within the US and the UK in the years immediately proceeding the crisis – but not in other countries representative of stereotypical non-Anglo-American types financial systems, such as Germany and France. Second, we find convergence within the category of large, transnationally-active financial firms. Overall our results suggest that while the behavior of the worlds largest globally active financial institutions is converging irrespective of home domicile, their activities are not necessarily leading to the general global homogenization of financial forms and activities implied by the financialization convergence hypothesis.

Atlas constrained: the US external balance sheet and international monetary power

ABSTRACT We address the impact on international monetary power of the size and nature of the USs international financial assets and liabilities. Financial globalization makes critical a focus on a nations international financial assets and liabilities, its ‘external balance sheet’. We suggest an expansion of Cohens existing framework of international monetary power to include the implications of valuation changes in these external balance sheets, focusing on sources of valuation, sensitivity and vulnerability of the US economy to these changes and implications for US ability to use monetary statecraft. By focusing on developments since 2007 and on events over the financial crisis period, we show that the increased size and nature of the USs external balance sheet has reduced US autonomy and monetary power. Underpinning the changes in the USs external balance sheet are activities of private financial market actors whose influence in international monetary affairs has grown markedly.

Stock exchanges in low and middle income countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and critique the swing in international policy from encouraging lower income countries to erect local stock exchanges in the 1990s to discouraging them on efficiency grounds after the US securities markets collapsed in 2001.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys existing literature and data about stock exchanges in emerging market countries for evidence justifying a supportive policy approach to local exchanges in lower income countries.Findings – Basic indicators of stock exchange performance in lower income countries from the World Development Indicators database reveal positive trends alongside the less auspicious indicators emphasized by international organizations opposed to stock exchange development in lower income countries. A survey of finance and development literature generally, and work on capital markets specifically, provides evidence of and rationale for the public benefits of stock exchange development, particularly in emerging market count...