Full Title: The Finance Curse: Britain and the World Economy Short Title: The Finance Curse Authors: John Christensen, Nick Shaxson, Duncan Wigan
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[email protected] (corresponding author) Duncan Wigan is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School. John Christensen is a development economist and Director of the Tax Justice Network. Nicholas Shaxson is author of Treasure Islands, a book about tax havens and financial centres, and Poisoned Wells, a book about the Resource Curse. Abstract: The Global Financial Crisis placed the utility of financial services in question. The crash, great recession, wealth transfers from public to private, austerity and growing inequality cast doubt on the idea that finance is a boon to the host economy. This article systematizes these doubts to highlight the perils of an oversized financial sector. States failing to harness natural resources for development, led to the concept of the Resource Curse. In many countries resource dependence generated slower growth, crowding out, reduced economic diversity, lost entrepreneurialism, unemployment, economic instability, inequality, conflict, rent-seeking and corruption. The Finance Curse produces similarly effects, often for similar reasons. Beyond a point, a growing financial sector can do more harm than good. Unlike the Resource Curse, these harms transcend borders. The concept of a Finance Curse starkly illuminates the condition of Britain’s political economy and the character of its relations with the rest of the world.