20-21 March 2020
Utrecht, Netrherlands
Workshop co-hosted by the eabh (The European Association for Banking and Financial History) and the University of Utrecht
The Dynamics of Inclusive Finance
The eabh is calling for papers for the Workshop The Dynamics of Inclusive Finance, 20 March 2020, University of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Why was it that in developed Western economies, financial institutions like banks only began to reach deep into society during the 1960s and 1970s? What drove this expansion, why did it not come earlier, what alternative services did people use before, and when, how and why did formal services come to replace those alternatives? Was the expansion demand or supply driven, made possible by new technology or simply a function of rising personal incomes, fostered by governments and central banks, or the result of private entrepreneurship? What was the relationship between emerging welfare states and the rise of commercial banking?
We want to particularly unearth and examine the alternatives to commercial banking that existed before in order to understand why banks gained the upper hand. This matters at a time when confidence in and public appreciation of banks seems to be at an all time low, while at the same time the erosion of the welfare state forces people to rely more and more on services provided by them. After all, knowing the conditions under which alternatives to commercial banking flourished my help when thinking of more modern alternatives that could help diverting the risks of bank based lending. The workshop aims at a cross country comparison in order to examine the dynamics of inclusive finance on a wider level.
In order to investigate these questions, University of Utrecht together with eabh invites colleagues to Utrecht in March 2020.
Further information about this event, and submitting a paper here »
Posted on the 17th May 2019
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