EH.N: Call for Papers - Deadline Extension

[Patrice Baubeau]

The deadline of the open call for papers for the International  
Conference "Convergence and divergence of national financial systems  
during the gold standards, 1871-1971" is extended to the 30th of  
June, 2008.


CODISYNA

Convergence et divergence des systèmes financiers nationaux au temps  
des étalons-or, 1871-1971

Convergence and divergence of national financial systems during the  
gold standards, 1871-1971

OPEN CALL FOR PAPERS
September 25th, 26th and 27th 2008
VILLA CLYTHIA – FREJUS – FRANCE

International conference
Colloque international

Organization – Organisation
Patrice Baubeau – Carlo Brambilla – Luca Fantacci – Anders Ögren –  
Angelo Riva


Scientific Committee – Comité scientifique
Youssef Cassis – Marc Flandreau – Richard Sylla – Bruno Théret


Ce colloque est financé
This conference is supported by
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France)

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

Université Paris 10 Nanterre and IDHE – Università Bocconi –  
Stockholm School of Economics

CALL FOR PAPERS – ARGUMENT

Convergence and divergence of national financial systems during the  
gold standards, 1871-1971

In the literature financial convergence appears as the process that  
draws together different national economies towards common  
institutions (rules) and organizations. The existence of one common  
rule is thus supposed to encourage the convergence process. But,  
notwithstanding the existence of an agreed upon basic rule between  
1871 and 1971 – i.e. gold as the international and national monetary  
anchor – the monetary and financial practices varied considerably  
during the period and between countries.
The comparative history and economics of financial systems stumble  
over many difficulties. First, to compare a system with another means  
most of the times to compare a nation with another, disregarding the  
internal and local varieties. Second, diachronic dimensions tend to  
be overlooked, freezing the characteristics of a given financial  
system in a coherent and long-lasting framework. Third, the term  
“financial system” is implying a high degree of coordination and  
mutual dependence between the elements of this system that may in  
reality not exist. Fourth, the “financial system” is sometimes  
simultaneously used in two different and incompatible ways in  
research, one as a description of a kind of financial organization  
and one as an “ideal type” used to test and characterize different  
national financial systems. In short, the notion is used both in a  
descriptive and in an explanatory way. Fifth, access to archives and  
strategic records is limited.
The use of different disciplinary approaches and of historical  
perspective, spanning from the 1870s to the 1970s, allow us to tackle  
these difficulties.
Our ambition is empirical as well as methodological: we intend to  
build an analytical framework for the understanding of financial  
systems through a collection of cases. Shocks, crises, distribution  
of power, politics, local agents, interest groups, competing  
financial centers and microstructures shed different and  
complementary lights on what defines and transforms financial systems.
Combining different approaches certainly mitigates the idea of one  
single dominant explanatory variable behind the structure and/or  
evolution of financial systems. It also exemplifies shifts in the  
most significant variables between different periods. As a first  
hypothesis we define a financial system as an architecture of rules,  
practices, organizations and power balances, which constantly adapts  
and evolves.
In order to analyze convergence and divergence of national financial  
systems, we concentrate on four related but distinct questions:
Financial crises as an instrument for exploring the structure of  
financial systems.
The link between short-term credit organization and financial systems  
structure.
Financial systems analyzed as networks of financial centers.
 From savings to investments? The interweaving roles of the financial  
and monetary systems

Session 1: Financial Centers and Financial Crises

Session organization: Anders Ögren

A study by Eichengreen and Flandreau (“The Geography of the Gold  
Standard” 1994) shows that not even the classical gold standard  
revolved around one financial center, i.e. London. Instead there were  
several economic zones with different regional financial centers for  
different peripheries. In the 2001 paper “Core, Periphery, Exchange  
Rate Regimes and Globalization” Bordo and Flandreau further pointed  
to the differences between core and periphery countries as some  
peripheral countries have their foreign debt denominated in foreign  
currencies; which of course makes them more vulnerable for financial  
crises and floating or depreciating exchange rates.
Thus, all countries have not through history been able to mitigate  
financial crises in the same manner. A too generous support of  
financial agents in times of crises may for instance lead to a  
currency crisis in more peripheral economies (see for instance  
“Financial Crises in Emerging Markets: A Canonical Model” by Chang &  
Velasco (1998) and “Lender of Last Resort in a Peripheral Economy  
with a Fixed Exchange Rate: Financial Crises and Monetary Policy in  
Sweden under the Silver and Gold Standards, 1834 – 1913” by Ögren  
(2007)). On the other hand, as summarized by Bagehot, a too passive  
acting of the monetary and financial authorities may also spur the  
crisis (see also “The Lender of Last Resort: Some Historical  
Insights” by Bordo (1989) and “A European Lender of Last Resort? Some  
Lessons from History” by Capie and Wood (1995)).
In this session we ask if the effects of the actions of the monetary  
and financial authorities in times of crises are different depending  
on the position of the financial center. And if the way the financial  
crisis can be met provides information about the importance of the  
financial center as such in relation to other financial centers and  
which periphery the financial center is connected to. We are of  
course also interested in the historical dynamics regarding these  
issues; i.e. how has this changed over time?

Session 2: Short-term credits and financial systems: norms, practices  
and path dependency

Session organization: Patrice Baubeau

Short term credit plays a central role in the making and coherence of  
financial systems. It does so through the global turnover of most  
financial intermediaries as well as through money issuance rules and  
practices. The linkage between monetary assets and financial  
activities at large can be established and managed by organizations  
and/or markets, but in both cases it is based on a specific kind of  
assets: short term credits and rely heavily on one specific kind of  
institution: Central banks.
Financial systems themselves are characterized by different types of  
short-term credits. Building a typology is nevertheless complex,  
because it should encompass a) quantitative dynamics; b) basic legal  
characteristics of short term bills; c) the channels through which  
they are funneled to money issuance or to long term finance. This  
means it is necessary to include practices and institutions into the  
typology.
Consequently, one can discriminates among financial systems through  
legal traditions, practices of emissions, rules governing  
monetization and the way in which short-term credits are traded. But  
this does not lead necessarily to dispersion, since there is a common  
issue to the different ways of articulating monetization and finance:  
avoiding and managing liquidity crises.
The goal of this session is to investigate how much theses  
differences are structurally significant and whether they create path  
dependent systems. It is also assumed that major crises, because they  
reveal the underneath structural weaknesses of the linkage between  
finance and money, help to understand both monetization processes and  
financial systems structures. To identify who creates short-term  
credits, who accepts, endorses, guarantees or circulates them, and  
how, would help us to precise the design of financial systems as well  
as build comparison bases with the “balance sheet” approach in  
Session 4.

Session 3: Financial systems as networks of financial centers

Session organization: Angelo Riva

National financial systems can be considered as networks of infra- 
national financial centers, which can develop local practices that  
sometimes diverge radically from national standards (i.e. legal  
rules). These local approaches to finance can, on one hand, raise  
frictions that segment the national markets and decrease its  
efficiency. On the other hand, they can be particularly adapted to  
satisfy the financial needs of a region, thus to boost local growth,  
or to deserve the interests of local or external incumbents. Although  
resilient, these practices are often broken down by financial  
integration and/or challengers, with contradictory consequences on  
both local finance and growth.
On the one hand, these local practices may imply the specialization  
of the financial center (or of specific institutions of the financial  
center) in either particular activities or business, often related to  
local industry. On the other hand, a financial center, even if not  
the dominant one, can offer a wide range of services to deserve  
diversified local/national financial needs.
Within the framework of the political and legal national environment,  
these dynamics can shape a hierarchy of financial centers (national,  
regional and local centers), which is characterized by high levels of  
financial centralization. The output of these interactions could also  
be a more horizontal financial centers’ network, in which financial  
activity is relatively decentralized. The form of the national  
network could be also shaped by its interactions with the  
international financial network and its position towards its  
hierarchical structure.
All these scenarios present relative advantages and limits. Moreover,  
concerning all these issues, the links between financial centers  
(flows of information, capital, services and people) are crucial to  
insure the well functioning and the perpetuity of both the single  
financial center and the national financial system.
In this session, we discuss in depth the topics sketched above.  
Organizers specially welcome papers based on social sciences,  
institutional and organizational economics, and geographical  
approaches in historical perspective.


Session 4: From savings to investments? The interweaving roles of the  
financial and monetary systems

Session organization: Luca Fantacci and Carlo Brambilla

This session addresses the connection between savings and investments  
through the articulation of the credit and financial system with the  
monetary system. Contributions may focus on specific aspects in  
specific European countries. However, a comparative approach is  
welcome, and will be, in any case, the purpose of discussion during  
the workshop. The balance sheets of intermediaries and central banks  
provide significant sources in the tracking of systemic relations  
between assets and liabilities, and hence the distribution of risk,  
amongst the various actors within the credit system.
Thus, contributions will address issues such as: How is money  
creation by central banks related to gold reserves, foreign exchange  
and public debt? How is this money transferred and multiplied by the  
banking system and by the stock market (e.g. through the creation of  
liquidity for securities used as collateral)? How do the rules of the  
international monetary system, from the classical gold standard to  
the gold exchange standard to the Bretton Woods system, affect the  
mechanics of money creation, the dynamics of the credit cycle and the  
relations between money and credit? What are, in more general terms,  
the effects of banking and market regulation on the functioning of  
the multiplier (e.g. through reserve requirements, capital adequacy  
ratios, information disclosure policies)?


Application and Organization
Participants should send a summary of their proposed paper (400  
words, Word or PDF), their preferred session and a brief CV including  
their academic affiliation-(s) before June 1st, 2008. Authors will be  
notified of acceptance no later than July 1st, 2008 and if accepted,  
will have to send the complete paper before September 1, 2008.
Accepted participants will be refunded for travel expenses and other  
accommodation costs.
The conference will be held in four half-day sessions. The third day  
will be devoted to the examination of the points of convergence  
between the papers, so as to prepare the final publication.

Contacts
Patrice Baubeau – patrice.baubeau at orange.fr
Luca Fantacci – luca.fantacci at unibocconi.it
Anders Ögren – Anders.Ogren at hhs.se
Angelo Riva – angelo.riva at unimi.it

Scientific Committee:
Youssef Cassis – Marc Flandreau – Richard Sylla – Bruno Théret