State-driven financialisation: a multi-scalar and multi-level process

Luciana de Oliveira Royer

Chapter 17 in Handbook on Financialisation and Space, 2026, pp 293-311 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the pivotal role of the state in real estate financialisation through the case of Brazil, highlighting the active role of public institutions and policies in shaping financial markets within a context of supranational constraints. By analysing Brazil's dual housing finance systems, the study makes three central claims: first, state-driven financialisation operates through sophisticated, multi-scalar governance arrangements. Second, public funds initially intended for social protection increasingly also serve as instruments of financial market formation, as evidenced by Brazil's Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço (FGTS, or the ‘Guarantee Fund Based on Service Time Contributions’ in English), which mobilises workers’ savings to finance speculative real estate development. Third, this institutional arrangement reinforces a stable accumulation regime in which capital expansion is prioritised at the expense of social aims. Ultimately, the analysis illustrates how fiscal austerity produces conditions that normalise financialised solutions, with multilateral agencies playing a central role in advancing market-based reform agendas. The research employs a mixed-methods analysis of World Bank documents, FGTS financial statements and regulatory frameworks from 2008 to 2016.

Keywords: State-driven Financialisation; Housing Finance; Real Estate Securities; Multi-scalar Governance; World Bank; Fiscal Austerity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035328628
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