Historical Foundations of Financial Institutions and Markets focuses on banks and the shifting role, and view of, of finance in society, and the institutional framework in which finance has been embedded. This means that the course does not attempt to cover all aspects of financial institutions and markets in all its chronological and geographical diversity. Rather, the course provides a historical and institutional perspective on the development of financial markets, financial crises, central banks and regulation as well monetary regimes. The historical focus enables students to critically understand and discuss the development and dynamics of the financial industry, including individual financial firms in their historical context. The course also considers how perceptions of the past constrain strategies and decisions in the present, and how such decisions have contributed to financial instability.

"Historical foundations of financial institutions and markets" is part of the minor "Financial Decision-Making in a Social Context".

Preliminary course literature (final course literature will be announced well before semester start)

Beckert, Jens, "How Do Fields Change? The Interrelations of Institutions, Networks, and Cognition in the Dynamics of Markets", Organization Studies, 2010, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 605-27

Beckert, Jens & Richard Bronk, Uncertain Futures. Imaginaries, Narratives, and Calculative Technologies, MPIfG Discussion Paper 19/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, 2019. http:/​/​hdl.handle.net/​21.11116/​0000-0005-C748-A

Bordo, Michael, “An historical perspective on the quest for financial stability and the monetary regime”, The Journal of Economic History, vol. 78, no 2, 2018, pp. 319-357

Cassis, Youssef, “Banking and finance in Europe since 1945”, In Hesse, Jan et al, Perspectives on European Economic and Social History, Baden-Baden, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2014, pp. 47-72

Cassis, Youssef & Giuseppe Telesca, “Financial Crises and the Public Discourse on Financial Elites A Comparison between the Great Depression and the Great Recession”, in Youssef Cassis & Giuseppe Telesca (eds), Financial Elites in European Banking. Historical Perspectives, OUP 2018, pp. 17-39

Eichengreen, Barry & Peter Temin, “Fetters of Gold and Paper”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 26, no. 3, 2010, pp. 370-384.

Feldman, Gerald D, (1994), “Jakob Goldschmidt, the History of the Banking Crisis of 1931, and the Problem of Freedom of Manoeuvre in the Weiman Economy”, in Christoph Buchheim, Michael Hutter & Harold James (eds), Zerissene Zwischenkriegszeit. Wirtschaftshistorische Beiträge. Knut Borchardt zum 65. Geburtstag, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, pp. 307-27.

Fichtner, Ullrich, Hauke Goos & Martin Hesse, “The Deutsche Bank Downfall. How a Pillar of German Banking Lost Its Way”, Spiegel Online, October 28, 2016.

Grossman, Richard S., “Regulation” in Richard Grossman, Unsettled Account. The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World Since 1800, Princeton University Press 2010, pp. 128-168

Hamilton, Stewart & Alicia Micklethwait, ”Enron: Paper Profits, Cash Losses”, in Greed and Corporate Failure. The Lessons From Recent Disasters, Palgrave MacMillan: New York 2006. Chapter 3, pp. 33-58

Ho, Karen, “Disciplining Investment Bankers, Disciplining the Economy: Wall Street’s Institutional Culture of Crisis and the Downsizing of “Corporate America”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 111, No. 2, June 2009, 177-89

Hansen, Per H., “Organizational Culture and Organizational Change: A Narrative analysis of the Transformation of Savings Banks in Denmark, 1965-1990”, Enterprise & Society, Vol. 8, no. 4, 2007, pp. 920-53

Hansen, Per H., “Making Sense of Financial Crisis and Scandal. A Danish Bank Failure in the Era of Finance Capitalism.” Enterprise & Society, 2012, vol 13, no. 4, 672-706

Hansen, Per H., "From finance capitalism to financialization: A Cultural and narrative perspective on 150 years of financial history", Enterprise & Society, 2014, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 605-42

Huertas, Thomas F. & Silverman, Joan L. (1986), “Charles E. Mitchel: Scapegoat of the Crash”, Business History Review, Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 81-103.

Jenkins, Patrick & Laura Noonan, ”How Deutsche Bank’s high-stakes gamble went wrong”, Financial Times, November 9, 2017

Jones, Geoffrey & Ingrid Vargas, ”Ivar Kreuger and the Swedish Match Empire”, HBS Case, 9-804-078, 2016 (HBS Case, download from https:/​/​hbsp.harvard.edu/​import/​845082 )

McNamara Christian M., Thomas Piontek, and Andrew Metrick, “Basel III A: Regulatory History”, Yale Program on Financial Stability Case Study 2014-1A-V1, November 2014. (Yale Case, download from https:/​/​som.yale.edu/​case/​2014/​basel-iii-regulatory-history )

McNamara, Christian M., Michael Wedow, and Andrew Metrick, Basel III B: Basel III Overview, Yale Program on Financial Stability Case Study 2014-1B-V1, November 2014. (Yale Case, download from https:/​/​som.yale.edu/​case/​2014/​basel-iii-b-basel-iii-overview )

Moss, David, ”The Deutsche Bank”, in Thomas McCraw, Creating Modern Capitalism. How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Harvard University Press, 1997, pp. 229-63

Moss, David, Cole Bolton & Andrew Novo, Danatbank, HBS Case, 2010 (HBS Case, download from https:/​/​hbsp.harvard.edu/​import/​845082 )

Moss, David, Cole Bolton & Eugene Kintgen, The Pecora Hearings, HBS Case, 2010 (HBS Case, download from https:/​/​hbsp.harvard.edu/​import/​845082 )

North, Douglas C., “Institutions and the Performance of Economies Over Time” in Claude Menard & Mary M. Shirley, Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Dordrecht, 2005, pp. 21-30.

Schäfer, Daniel, “Deutsche Bank Economist criticises the Josef Ackermann era”, Handelsblatt.com, 21 May, 2018, https:/​/​www.handelsblatt.com/​finanzen/​banken-versicherungen/​david-folkerts-landau-im-interview-chefvolkswirt-der-deutschen-bank-rechnet-mit-der-aera-von-josefackermann-ab/​22580552.html (English Translation)