EBOOK
Visions of Financial Order
National Institutions And The Development Of Banking Regulation
Kim PernellSeries: Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology(0)
About
How differences in national financial regulatory systems emerged from divergent beliefs about economic order and prosperity
The global financial crisis of the late 2000s was marked by the failure of regulators to rein in risk-taking by banks. And yet regulatory issues varied from country to country, with some national financial regulatory systems proving more effective than others. In Visions of Financial Order, Kim Pernell traces the emergence of important national differences in financial regulation in the decades leading up to the crisis. To do so, she examines the cases of the United States, Canada, and Spain-three countries that subscribed to the same transnational regulatory framework (the Basel Capital Accord) but developed different regulatory policies in areas that would directly affect bank performance during the financial crisis.
In a broad historical analysis that extends from the rise of the first modern chartered banks in the 1780s through the major financial crises of the twentieth century and the Basel Capital Accord of 1988, Pernell shows how the different (and sometimes competing) principles of order embedded in each country's regulatory and political institutions gave rise to distinctive visions of order and prosperity, which shaped subsequent financial regulatory design. Pernell argues that the different worldviews of national banking regulators reflected cultural beliefs about the ideal way to organize economic life to promote order, stability, and prosperity. Visions of Financial Order offers an innovative perspective on the persistent differences between regulatory institutions and the ways they shaped the unfolding of the 2008 global financial crisis. Kim Pernell is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. "Visions of Financial Order guides the reader through over two centuries of banking regulations, examining the turning points that made US, Canadian, and Spanish national banking regimes into what they are today. Pernell's bold research offers fresh insight into how culture shapes economic life in ways that are indelibly influenced by contingency, conflict, and crisis. Elegantly written and argued, this important book is as useful for understanding financial regulation today as it is for comprehending our economic and political past."-Sarah Quinn, author of American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation
"This book takes an innovative approach to financial sector regulation, offering an ambitious comparative-historical perspective organized around the proposition that each country has dual institutional cultural frames, which are activated during moments of regulation as contending cultural arguments."-Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"An impressive achievement. There is a voluminous social science literature on financial (de)regulation, but I know of no other work which analyzes regulatory regimes with this level of historical depth and comparative breadth. Pernell solves the exceptionally difficult analytical puzzle of how to explain cross-national trajectories of financial regulation with an original and quite powerful theory based on the idea of contending visions of economic order."-Adam Goldstein, Princeton University "What is new here is the perspective of a young sociologist with a fresh pair of eyes. It is not easy to come up with meaningful conclusions that can serve as guideposts for future financial policy and sensible regulation. Pernell . . . has certainly done a credible job and has added a fresh perspective to the discussion."
The global financial crisis of the late 2000s was marked by the failure of regulators to rein in risk-taking by banks. And yet regulatory issues varied from country to country, with some national financial regulatory systems proving more effective than others. In Visions of Financial Order, Kim Pernell traces the emergence of important national differences in financial regulation in the decades leading up to the crisis. To do so, she examines the cases of the United States, Canada, and Spain-three countries that subscribed to the same transnational regulatory framework (the Basel Capital Accord) but developed different regulatory policies in areas that would directly affect bank performance during the financial crisis.
In a broad historical analysis that extends from the rise of the first modern chartered banks in the 1780s through the major financial crises of the twentieth century and the Basel Capital Accord of 1988, Pernell shows how the different (and sometimes competing) principles of order embedded in each country's regulatory and political institutions gave rise to distinctive visions of order and prosperity, which shaped subsequent financial regulatory design. Pernell argues that the different worldviews of national banking regulators reflected cultural beliefs about the ideal way to organize economic life to promote order, stability, and prosperity. Visions of Financial Order offers an innovative perspective on the persistent differences between regulatory institutions and the ways they shaped the unfolding of the 2008 global financial crisis. Kim Pernell is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. "Visions of Financial Order guides the reader through over two centuries of banking regulations, examining the turning points that made US, Canadian, and Spanish national banking regimes into what they are today. Pernell's bold research offers fresh insight into how culture shapes economic life in ways that are indelibly influenced by contingency, conflict, and crisis. Elegantly written and argued, this important book is as useful for understanding financial regulation today as it is for comprehending our economic and political past."-Sarah Quinn, author of American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation
"This book takes an innovative approach to financial sector regulation, offering an ambitious comparative-historical perspective organized around the proposition that each country has dual institutional cultural frames, which are activated during moments of regulation as contending cultural arguments."-Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"An impressive achievement. There is a voluminous social science literature on financial (de)regulation, but I know of no other work which analyzes regulatory regimes with this level of historical depth and comparative breadth. Pernell solves the exceptionally difficult analytical puzzle of how to explain cross-national trajectories of financial regulation with an original and quite powerful theory based on the idea of contending visions of economic order."-Adam Goldstein, Princeton University "What is new here is the perspective of a young sociologist with a fresh pair of eyes. It is not easy to come up with meaningful conclusions that can serve as guideposts for future financial policy and sensible regulation. Pernell . . . has certainly done a credible job and has added a fresh perspective to the discussion."