Questioning Credible Commitment: Perspectives on the Rise of Financial Capitalism

D?maris Coffman

ISBN 10: 1107039010 / ISBN 13: 9781107039018

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2013

About this Item

An interdisciplinary examination of credible commitment to fiscal responsibility and its relevance to current macroeconomic policy making. Editor(s): Coffman, D'Maris; Leonard, Adrian; Neal, Larry. Series: Macroeconomic Policy Making. Num Pages: 298 pages, 29 b/w illus. 21 tables. BIC Classification: KCB; KCS. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 159 x 235 x 20. Weight in Grams: 548. . 2013. Hardcover. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9781107039018

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Questioning Credible Commitment: Perspectives on the Rise of Financial Capitalism
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107039010
• ISBN 13: 9781107039018
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Financial capitalism emerged in a recognisably modern form in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Great Britain. Following the seminal work of Douglass C. North and Barry R. Weingast (1989), many scholars have concluded that the 'credible commitment' that was provided by parliamentary backing of government as a result of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 provided the key institutional underpinning on which modern public finances depend. In this book, a specially commissioned group of historians and economists examine and challenge the North and Weingast thesis to show that multiple commitment mechanisms were necessary to convince public creditors that sovereign debt constituted a relatively accessible, safe and liquid investment vehicle. Questioning Credible Commitment provides academics and practitioners with a broader understanding of the origins of financial capitalism, and, with its focus on theoretical and policy frameworks, shows the significance of the debate to current macroeconomic policy making.

About the Authors

D'Maris Coffman is the Mary Bateson Research Fellow at Newnham College, Director of the Centre for Financial History and Affiliated Lecturer in the History Faculty, University of Cambridge.

Adrian Leonard is a Bateman Scholar at Trinity Hall and an Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Financial History, Newnham College, University of Cambridge.

Larry Neal is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.