The Relevance of Financialization for African Economies: Lessons from South Africa

Sam Ashman, Ben Fine and Ewa Karwowski
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Ben Fine: Department of Economics, SOAS University of London

No 245, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: While research has highlighted that financialization critically affects African economies and societies through its effect upon commodity prices, international value chain participation, and land, there are few accounts of the systemic and macroeconomic importance of financialization for African societies; the big exception being work on South Africa. The South African case, despite its historical peculiarities, has a broader relevance for African economies since the country combines many characteristics typical especially for the sub-Saharan region – including resource richness, a persistent trade deficit, and a volatile exchange rate – while its financialization trajectory is ahead of other African economies because financial liberalization was pioneered as early as the late 1970s. This article summarizes the effects of financialization on South Africa, holding a warning for other African countries which have increasingly engaged in financial liberalization since the 1990s. Furthermore, we detail how financialization has facilitated and furthered corruption in South Africa, in turn undermining democratic processes. Thus, we contribute to research on financialization on democracy, a field hardly considered in the context of developing countries.

Keywords: financialization; neoliberalism; South Africa; State Capture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G00 H11 O1 P10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2021-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-ban, nep-fdg, nep-his and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:soa:wpaper:245

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