EH.N: CfP Deadline Extension: War, Money and Finance Monetary and Financial Structures

[Patrice Baubeau]

Dear Colleagues,

In order to allow final proposal to be made, the 
deadline of our international conference on "War, 
Money and Finance" to be held in Nanterre (Paris, 
France) June 19th and 20th 2008, is postponed to 
April 15th. You'll find below the Call for Paper. 
Best regards.

Patrice Baubeau, Ludovic Desmedt and Anders =D6gren

--

International conference on War, Money and 
Finance Monetary and Financial Structures: The 
Impact of Political Unrests and Wars

CALL FOR PAPERS

Université Paris 10 - Nanterre - Bâtiment K
June 19th-20th, 2008


General argument:
Political unrest and especially civil and foreign 
wars have historically had a major impact on 
financial and monetary structures. Many financial 
innovations can be attributed to the need to fund 
wars. And, without exception, wars have 
influenced changes in the monetary systems. The 
mere threat of violent political unrest or war 
leads to a "flight for quality", i.e. the attempt 
to exchange financial assets for currency, or to 
redeem currency for specie or a more trustworthy 
currency, leading to the collapse and/or 
transformation of the financial and monetary 
structures. The outcome of conflicts determines 
the balance of power, which is of vital 
importance for international financial relations 
and thus also affects domestic financial and 
monetary structures.

Our hypotheses are:
1) To a large extent, the long-term impact of 
wars on the structure of financial systems is a 
result of the need for direct and indirect 
funding of the conflict and its preparation 
and/or of the reparations and other costs 
following it.

2) Monetary structures are affected by political 
unrest and wars not only during the course of the 
conflict, but also in the aftermath.


Session 1
Wars, Militarization
and Financial Systems
Patrice Baubeau

The usual distinction between financial systems 
is rather clear: they tend to bend either on the 
bank or on the market side. But when going 
further into detail, the distinction between 
these two systems gets blurred. There are many 
attempts to explain the main driving force(s) 
behind the financial systems that exist in 
different countries. But, one aspect has been 
overlooked, namely hazard. Could major hazards, 
like wars, affect the very structure of a 
financial system? Indeed, a first glance seems to 
show the link between bank-based financial 
systems and military events: wars or heavy 
militarization.

a) How do financial systems evolve in case of a war?

b) Do they usually go from market to bank or the reverse? Why?

c) Do different militarization historical cases lead to different results?

d) How do usual technical explanations stand in front of war effects?

e) How do structural reforms in financial systems affect institutions?

f) Are these structural reforms aimed at 
financial markets or at monetary tools?


Session 2
Paper Money and the Impact of
Political Crises and Wars
Anders Ögren

The monetary system during a period of unrest is 
usually reformed or transformed. The monetary 
regime may change by the backing of money being 
transferred to less liquid or lower quality 
assets. It may also lead to the emergence of a 
fiat monetary system of different varieties. It 
is clear that whoever wants to understand the 
emergence of fiat money and fiat monetary systems 
has a lot of insights to gain from studying the 
impact of political unrest and wars on monetary 
systems through history. More specific questions 
to be studied in this session are for instance:

g) How does the monetary situation change?

h) How do the institutions and organizations governing monetary issues change?

i) What makes the monetary situation change?

j) What are the empirical experiences and results of these changes?

k) Are the empirical experiences comparable between countries and over time?

l) How do the empirical observations correspond 
to both contemporary and current monetary 
theories?

m) Does the empirical experience affect the 
theoretical view on paper money and paper 
monetary systems?


Deadlines and Organization:
The conference is two days long, one session a 
day. It will consist in a brief presentation 
(10') by the author, followed by an in-depth 
discussion (20'), after the discussant 
introduction (10').  Discussants will be chosen 
among the authors selected to the conference. 
Session general discussions will also be held.

Proposals should include a brief résumé of the 
author, the paper title and a summary. They 
should be sent to the organizers before April 
15th 2008.  Authors will be notified of their 
acceptance. The complete working paper should be 
sent before June 1st, 2008.  Transportation and 
accommodation costs will be refunded for all 
accepted submissions.


Scientific Committee:
Youssef Cassis, Håkan Lindgren, Bruno Théret

Organization Committee:
Patrice Baubeau: IDHE - Université Paris 10 
Nanterre, e-mail: patrice.baubeau at u-paris10.fr
Ludovic Desmedt: CEMF - Université de Dijon, 
e-mail: ludovic.desmedt at u-bourgogne.fr
Anders Ögren: EHFF - Stockholm School of 
Economics and EconomiX - Université Paris 10, 
e-mail: anders.ogren at hhs.se

Website : http://homepage.mac.com/patrice14/