Financialised Capitalism and Inequality: shareholder value-driven firms, marketised household balance sheets and bubbly financial markets

Nicholas Black, Ismail Erturk

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter covers the relationship between financialisation and inequality by first providing a theoretical understanding of financialised capitalism and then discussing how the behaviour of shareholder value-driven firms and financialised households shape the dynamics of inequality in present day capitalism. Through data on financialised economies and households in ten high income countries we discuss financialisation’s quantitative properties. And then financialised firm behaviour is discussed by tracing the rise of neo-liberal agency theories that justify shareholder value maximisation strategies by managers and consequently legitimises the growth of the gap between CEO compensation and average wage which is the main driver of inequality in financialised capitalism.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInequality and Uneven Development in the Post-Crisis World
EditorsSebastiano Fadda, Pasquale Tridico
Place of PublicationAbingdon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter7
Pages127-144
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781315388823
ISBN (Print)9781138229563
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Jun 2017

Publication series

NameRoutledge Advances in Heterodox Economics
PublisherRoutledge
Volume35

Keywords

  • financialisation
  • inequality
  • financial crisis

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