Financialization: A bibliometric review, research streams, influential works, and future research paths

Figures & data

Table 1. Scopus database query

Description	Conditions	Number of Documents
Search query	TITLE-ABS-KEY (financialization)	3,163 Documents
Search query after refine	TITLE-ABS-KEY (financialization) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ar”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “English”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, “j”))	2,288 Documents
Access	Included both open access and non-open access documents	2,288 Documents
Query search date	April 24, 2021
Years	All years (1996–2021)
Subject area	Included all subject areas
Source type	Limited the search to journal articles
Language	Limited the search to the English language

Figure 1. Keyword Occurrence.

Figure 2. VOSviewer graph: authors.

Figure 3. Top keywords of financialization.

Figure 4. Number of publications over the years.

Table 2. Top keywords of financialization

Keywords	Occurrences
Financialization	924
Financialisation	429
Financial System	252
Finance	215
Financial Crisis	173
Neoliberalism	172
Investment	154
Political Economy	142
Capitalism	141
Financial Market	141

Table 3. Top cited documents of financialization

Rank	Document	Citations	Rank	Document	Citations
1	Krippner (2005)	1009	11	Orhangazi (2008)	255
2	Tang and Xiong (2012)	528	12	French et al. (2011)	249
3	van der Zwan (2014)	502	13	Rolnik (2013)	239
4	Stockhammer (2004)	435	14	Sullivan (2013)	238
5	Froud et al. (2000)	321	15	Pike and Pollard (2009)	235
6	McMichael (2012)	302	16	Creti et al. (2013)	224
7	Harvey (2006)	299	17	Lin and Tomaskovic-Devey (2013)	218
8	Lazzarato (2009)	297	18	Büyükşahin and Robe (2014)	207
9	Silvennoinen and Thorp (2013)	263	19	Weber (2010)	206
10	Lapavitsas (2009)	255	20	Jordà et al. (2011)	202

Table 4. Top sources of financialization by number of documents and citations

Rank	Sources	Documents	Rank	Source	Citations
1	Environment and Planning A	53	1	Socio-Economic Review	2384
2	New Political Economy	48	2	Cambridge Journal Of Economics	1506
3	Geoforum	39	3	Economy And Society	1182
4	Urban Studies	39	4	Journal Of Peasant Studies	1096
5	Cambridge Journal Of Economics	38	5	Urban Studies	961
6	Socio-Economic Review	37	6	Economic Geography	893
7	Energy Economics	34	7	Energy Economics	868
8	Review Of International Political Economy	34	8	International Journal Of Urban And Regional Research	817
9	Competition And Change	33	9	New Political Economy	790
10	Review Of Radical Political Economics	31	10	Environment And Planning A	742

Table 5. Top countries of financialization publications by number of documents and citations

Rank	Country	Documents	Rank	Country	Citations
1	United Kingdom	652	1	United Kingdom	11272
2	United States	413	2	United States	8938
3	Canada	157	3	Canada	2897
4	Germany	154	4	Germany	1844
5	Australia	153	5	Australia	1780
6	France	118	6	France	1661
7	China	106	7	Netherlands	1586
8	Italy	88	8	Belgium	1194
9	Netherlands	72	9	China	1105
10	Spain	68	10	Italy	877

Figure 5. Top 10 affiliations with financialization documents.

Figure 6. Top 10 funding sponsors.

Figure 7. Most cited documents on financialization.

Figure 8. Top sources of financialization by number of documents.

Figure 9. Top authors of financialization by number of documents.

Figure 10. Top countries of financialization publications by number of documents.

Table 6. Cluster analysis

Stream	Author	Purpose	Findings
Financial Crisis	Pagliari et al., (2020)	To investigate if financialisation has provided policy preference to individuals who support policies that are linked with the financial sector	Study shows that ownership of financial assets is associated with lower support for more strict financial regulatory policy, while there is higher support for financial sector bailout.
Financial Crisis	Natoli, (2021)	To look at the early financialisation literature, to evaluate how market friction can have an impact on prices and liquidity; related to the oil price spike	Study shows how analysis such as of the Shale industry and other financial derivatives might add to the financialisation of commodities; studies show that commercial investors play a vital role in derivative markets
Financial Crisis	Massot, (2020)	To show how the market has changed in the past 50 years through studies of iron ore market price and shipping regimes in Japan and China.	China’s rise has led to marketisation in the iron ore pricing regime but de-marketisation in the shipping regime, whereas in earlier years, Japan’s rise had led to de-marketisation in both pricing and shipping regime.
Capitalism	Petry, (2020)	To illustrate how states can exert control over, actively manage, and shape financialisation; also examines the role of securities exchanges in the development of China’s capital markets.	The study points out that state-owned exchanges act as intermediaries between the Chinese state, society, and finance. They shape the infrastructural arrangements of capital markets. The capital structure of the institution can lead to a better credit policy related to that institute: a credit union.
Capitalism	DiMuzio & Robbins, (2020)	To explain the money creation theorem.	The study shows how the capitalisation of money creation by a minority of investors can lead to unsustainable economic growth. In addition, it shows how there is a differential distribution of interest upward, and how that can generate economic inequality in the United States. Moreover, the study points out that during declining growth, dominant owners of capital look to getting back their expected return on investments by extracting a greater share of the national income from the vast majority of citizens.
Capitalism	Lee, (2020a)	To examine the high growth and low inequality of the East Asian economy. Additionally, to look at East Asian capitalism during the COVID-19 Pandemic.	The study shows that financialisation plays a large role in producing low growth and high inequality in East Asia. East Asian capitalism during COVID-19 has halted globalisation and led to uncertainty regarding the shareholder capitalism association with financialisation and globalization. The study indicates that East Asian economies can now act as hybrid capitalism.
Neoliberalism	Forrest & Hirayama, (2015)	To explore the development of the social project of homeownership and analyse the shortcomings of neoliberal homeownership systems.	While previous generations were promised homeownership as part of the social project, newer generations are being promised private landlordism. This shift is a result of a new and intensified housing commodification process. The neoliberal economic project has, since the subprime mortgage crisis, undermined the Keynesian social project of liberalism.
Neoliberalism	Rolnik, (2013)	To investigate the elements of neoliberal housing policies and their impacts on people’s enjoyment of right to housing.	Neoliberalism continues to maintain its dominance due to strategies that have been implemented as a result of the reform of housing policies. This includes changes to policies regarding homeownership, privatization of property, and binding financial commitments. The subprime mortgage crisis demonstrated that market mechanisms are unable to allocate adequate housing for all members of an economy.
Neoliberalism	Lazzarato, (2009)	To focus on encourage rethinking of how neoliberalism has transformed society into an ‘enterprise society’ based on the market, competition, inequality, and the privilege of an individual.	The study shows that the main goal of such neoliberal politics is to attain the power of capital in order to ascertain the distribution of wealth and establish the enterprise as the dominant form. The study calls for society focus on structural reconstruction by creating new structures for the regulation of human behaviour.
Urban Development	Theurillat et al., (2021)	To consider recent developments in urban planning policy that have arisen in East-Central Europe over the last few decades.	Megaprojects and infrastructure growth have become heavily reliant on the earnings and spending of increasingly mobile customers and residents.
Urban Development	Buček, (2016)	To consider recent developments in urban planning policy that have arisen in East-Central Europe over the last few decades.	Governance, city regions, and financialisation are some of the current urban growth problems in this area. Their implementation in the case of Bratislava is studied in addition to an overview with a general context.
Urban Development	Raco et al., (2019)	To discuss European policymakers who have become more reliant on foreign investment and global finance after the global financial crisis.	Planning authorities and existing territory-based structures are increasingly seen as barriers to investment and as curbing much-needed housing construction and redevelopment.
Urban development	Mabbett, (2021)	To evaluate why UK pension funds have ‘de-risked’ their portfolios by moving out of assets with volatile prices.	Studies show that de-risking is produced by the performance of financialised risk management in a regulatory setting in which horizons are shortened. There are three features of the governance structure for pensions that have attempted to counter this: 1) spillover effects of financialisation in corporate accounting, 2) herding around industry benchmarks, and 3) collective action problems arising from the regulator’s dependence on dialogue with private actors and the risk-aversion of political actors.
Corporate governance	Klink et al., (2020)	To show the intergovernmental debts of a poor country that reevaluated the pricing of utilities, consultancies, regulation agencies, and water governance.	Water governance is lacking in less developed countries such as Brazil because of the transformation of the country by which the metropolitan area is now located next to the rivers. The study provides a more articulate approach to political economy and social studies of finance in terms of helping with financialisation in the capital markets.

Krippner, G. R. (2005). The financialization of the American economy. Socio-Economic Review, 3(2), 173–208. https://doi.org/10.1093/SER/mwi008

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Orhangazi, O. (2008). Financialisation and capital accumulation in the non-financial corporate sector: A theoretical and empirical investigation on the US economy: 1973-2003. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 32(6), 863–886. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/ben009

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Tang, K., & Xiong, W. (2012). Index investment and the financialization of commodities. Financial Analysts Journal, 68(6), 54–74. https://doi.org/10.2469/faj.v68.n6.5

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French, S., Leyshon, A., & Wainwright, T. (2011). Financializing space, spacing financialization. Progress in Human Geography, 35(6), 798–819. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132510396749

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van der Zwan, N. (2014). Making sense of financialization. Socio-Economic Review, 12(1), 99–129. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwt020

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Rolnik, R. (2013). Late neoliberalism: The financialization of homeownership and housing rights: Debates and developments. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(3), 1058–1066. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12062

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Stockhammer, E. (2004). Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 28(5), 719–741. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beh032

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Sullivan, S. (2013). Banking nature? The spectacular financialisation of environmental conservation. Antipode, 45(1), 198–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.00989.x

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Froud, J., Haslam, C., Johal, S., & Williams, K. (2000). Shareholder value and financialization: Consultancy promises, management moves. Economy and Society, 29(1), 80–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/030851400360578

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Pike, A., & Pollard, J. (2009). Economic geographies of financialization: Economic geography. Economic Geography, 86(1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2009.01057.x

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McMichael, P. (2012). The land grab and corporate food regime restructuring. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3–4), 681–701. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.661369

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Creti, A., Joëts, M., & Mignon, V. (2013). On the links between stock and commodity markets’ volatility. Energy Economics, 37, 16–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.01.005

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Lin, K.-H., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2013). Financialization and U.S. income inequality, 1970–2008. American Journal of Sociology, 118(5), 1284–1329. https://doi.org/10.1086/669499

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Lazzarato, M. (2009). Neoliberalism in action: Inequality, insecurity and the reconstitution of the social. Theory, Culture & Society, 26(6), 109–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409350283

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Büyükşahin, B., & Robe, M. A. (2014). Speculators, commodities and cross-market linkages. Journal of International Money and Finance, 42, 38–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2013.08.004

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Silvennoinen, A., & Thorp, S. (2013). Financialization, crisis and commodity correlation dynamics. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 24, 42–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2012.11.007

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Weber, R. (2010). Selling city futures: The financialization of urban redevelopment policy: Economic geography. Economic Geography, 86(3), 251–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2010.01077.x

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Lapavitsas, C. (2009). Financialised capitalism: Crisis and financial expropriation. Historical Materialism, 17(2), 114–148.

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Jordà, Ò., Schularick, M., & Taylor, A. M. (2011). Financial crises, credit booms, and external imbalances: 140 years of lessons. IMF Economic Review, 59(2), 340–378. https://doi.org/10.1057/imfer.2011.8

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Pagliari, S., Phillips, L. M., & Young, K. L. (2020). The financialization of policy preferences: Financial asset ownership, regulation and crisis management. Socio-Economic Review, 18(3), 655–680. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy027

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Natoli, F. (2021). Financialization of commodities before and after the great financial crisis. Journal of Economic Surveys, 35(2), 488–511. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12408

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Massot, P. (2020). Market power and marketisation: Japan and China’s impact on the iron ore market, 50 years apart. New Political Economy, 25(4), 511–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2019.1613350

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Petry, J. (2020). Financialization with Chinese characteristics? Exchanges, control and capital markets in authoritarian capitalism. Economy and Society, 49(2), 213–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2020.1718913

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DiMuzio, T., & Robbins, R. (2020). Capitalized money, austerity and the math of capitalism. Current Sociology, 68(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392119886876

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Lee, K. (2020a). Varieties of capitalism and re-thinking the East Asian model of economic growth after the covid-19: Rebalancing shareholder and stakeholder capitalism. Seoul Journal of Economics, 33(4), 487–504. https://doi.org/10.22904/SJE.2020.33.4.001

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Forrest, R., & Hirayama, Y. (2015). The financialisation of the social project: Embedded liberalism, neoliberalism and home ownership. Urban Studies, 52(2), 233–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014528394

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Theurillat, T., Brown, I., Chalov, S., Simard, M., Lane, C. R., Jarsjö, J., Darvishi, M., & Jaramillo, F. (2021). Drivers and extent of surface water occurrence in the Selenga River Delta, Russia. Regional Studies, 38, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100945

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Buček, J. (2016). Urban development policy challenges in East-Central Europe: Governance, city regions and financialisation. Quaestiones Geographicae, 35(2), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1515/quageo-2016-0012

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Raco, M., Livingstone, N., & Durrant, D. (2019). Seeing like an investor: Urban development planning, financialisation, and investors’ perceptions of London as an investment space. European Planning Studies, 27(6), 1064–1082. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2019.1598019

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Mabbett, D. (2021). Reckless prudence: Financialization in UK pension scheme governance after the crisis. Review of International Political Economy, 28(4), 926–946. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1758187

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Klink, J., Empinotti, V. L., & Aversa, M. (2020). On contested water governance and the making of urban financialisation: Exploring the case of metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil. Urban Studies, 57(8), 1676–1695. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019844390

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