Financialization in Heterodox Economics1

Abstract

The term financialization occupies a centre-stage in non-mainstream approaches to economics. Existing research in heterodox economics sees changes in modern finance as a key aspect of the transformation of contemporary capitalism. However, there is considerable diversity in the way financialization is approached, studied, and analyzed in heterodox discussions, implying a range of different analytical frameworks, methodological assumptions, research questions, and strategies. The chapter presents and discusses the main strands of heterodox literature with regard to contemporary finance and overviews alternative research agendas. While the majority of heterodox economic approaches conceptualize financialization as dysfunctional to capitalist society, an emerging research agenda investigates the transformation of class relations and social conflicts that are related to financialization.

The Influence of Financial Development on Wealth Inequality in Capitalism: Fresh Evidence from Emerging Countries

“…The term nancialization has had a central position in political economy since the 1980s. Mainstream and heterodox approaches agree on the transformative in uence of nancialization in a capitalist economy (Sotiropoulos and Hillig, 2020). Particularly, nancialization is identi ed with heterodox economics, Marxism, and Post-Keynesian (Aalbers, 2017).…”