What they do with your money: Does the finance industry do its job well?
The finance industry plays a vital role in addressing the world’s most pressing problems. Yet, although there are many studies of finance industry, few that start by asking “what is its purpose”; and therefore few which are aimed at telling us whether it serves that purpose well. Those that do are very challenging; the most definitive, for example, calculates that, as far as the “real economy” is concerned there has been no increase in the productivity of intermediation in over more than a century.

Reflection on how the industry is currently structured can give us clues to this very poor performance, and suggest how we might begin a process of reform. But to do so will mean that we need to move away from the exclusive use of “competitive markets” and “regulation”, which dominate today’s policy discussion.
Date: 9 May 2016, 17:00 (Monday, 3rd week, Trinity 2016)
Venue: St Antony's College - North Site
Venue Details: Seminar Room, European Studies Centre, 70 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HR
Speaker: David Pitt-Watson (London Business School)
Organising department: European Studies Centre
Organiser: Julie Adams (St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: julie.adams@sant.ox.ac.uk
Hosts: David Vines (Balliol College, University of Oxford), Adam Bennett (St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Part of: Political Economy of Financial Markets Programme
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Julie Adams