“国经院系列讲座”第10期：Financial Centres' Competitiveness and Economic Convergence Evidence from the EU Regions

【题目】Financial Centres' Competitiveness and Economic Convergence: Evidence from the EU Regions

【时间】2017年5月11日14:00-15:30

【地点】天津大学25楼A座3层C教室

【主讲人】Roman Matousek 英国肯特大学商学院副院长、银行与金融学教授，Journal of Banking & Finance 副主编

【主持人】张中祥 天津大学管理与经济学部经济学特聘教授，国家能源、环境和产业经济研究院院长

主讲人简介

Roman Matousek is Professor of Banking and Finance and Deputy Director of Kent Business School responsible for international collaboration and partnership. He is also a member of the prestigious Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) International Committee. Roman served as Head of Research and Director of the Research Centre for EMEA Banking, Finance and Economics. Before joining Kent University Roman was a Professor of Finance at Sussex University. His research is focused on theoretical and empirical inquiry into issues of international banking, bank regulation, microeconomics of banking and monetary policy. His publications appear in Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of International Money and Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, Review of International Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, among others. Roman currently serves as the Associate Editor of Journal of Banking & Finance and Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money.

报告简介

This study analyses the gaps in financial centres’ competitiveness and their impact on regional economic convergence in 23 EU Member States during the period of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). First, we examine the speed and trend of convergence (divergence) of European financial centres’ competitiveness and the economic convergence of the regions where they are located. From a methodological viewpoint, this is the first paper so far that applies a non-parametric technique to the club convergence model and tackles the endogeneity problem in the convergence literature. Our results show that the large and internationally-oriented financial centres experienced a divergent trend in terms of the competitiveness of the financial centres’ business environment during the peak of the crisis in 2008. We further contribute to current research by exploring the economic convergence and divergence patterns among regions from two different sites across the selected EU Member States and within each country. We find evidence that the convergence of financial centres reduces regional economic inequalities between the regions where financial centres are located. In contrast, the increase in the competitiveness of financial centres only serves to widen existing inequalities at the national level. Finally, we examine and discuss the impact of competitiveness drivers of financial centres on the convergence pattern of EU regions.