POST-SOCIALIST URBAN FINANCIALIZATION IN SERBIA: AN EMPIRICAL INSIGHT
Keywords:
financialization, commercial and residential properties, urban financialization, post-socialist countries, Serbia
Abstract
Financialization as a global process usually promotes finance as a dominant narrative (Aalbers, 2019) and plays a strong role in the economic development and urban changes in all contextual frameworks. Nevertheless, research on financialization is relatively scarce in post-socialist European countries, with a complete absence of research on this issue in Serbia. Focusing on post-socialist Serbia in the post-crisis period (after 2008), the paper situates the narrative of urban financialization into the broader context by: illuminating the financialization dimensions; identifying the indicators for selected financialization dimensions; analyzing concrete data for selected financialization dimensions by specific indicators, and comparing available indicators of financialization with those in some post-socialist countries of CEE and SEE. The empirical analysis provides insight into the complex nature of urban financialization which is measured by specific indicators at the national level.
References
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Anguelov, D., Leitner, H., & Sheppard, E. (2018). Engineering the Financialization of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The JESSICA Urban Development Initiative in the European Union. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 42(4), 573-593.
Bartlett, W., & Prica, I. (2013). The deepening crisis in the European super-periphery. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 15(4), 367-382.
Becker, J., Jäger, J., Leubolt, B., & Weissenbacher, R. (2010). Peripheral financialization and vulnerability to crisis: A regulationist perspective. Competition & Change, 14(3-4), 225-247.
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Büdenbender, M., & Aalbers, M. (2019). How subordinate financialization shapes urban development: The rise and fall of Warsaw’s Służewiec business district. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(4), 666-684.
CEIC data (2023). Serbia Market Capitalization: % of GDP. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/serbia/market-capitalization--nominal-gdp.
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Dore, R. (2000). Stock Market Capitalism: Japan and Germany versus the Anglo-Saxons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dvorsky S., Scheiber T., & Stix H. (2010). Real Effects of Crisis Have Reached CESEE Households: Euro Survey Shows Dampened Savings and Changes in Borrowing Behavior. Focus on European Economic Integration, 2, 79-90.
Elhefnawy, N. (2020). Keynesian Fordism and Neoliberal Financialization: A Comparison of Economic Models. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3685990 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3685990
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Georgia, A., & Janoschka, M. (2017). Who loses and who wins in a housing crisis? Lessons from Spain and Greece for a nuanced understanding of dispossession. Housing Policy Debate, 21(1), 117-134.
Göler, D. (2005). South-east Europe as European periphery? Empirical and theoretical aspects. In Serbia and modern processes in Europe and the world (pp.137-142). Belgrade: University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography.
Guironnet, A., Attuyer, K., & Halbert L. (2016). Building Cities on Financial Assets: The Financialization of Property Markets and Its Implications for City Governments in the Paris City-Region. Urban Studies, 53(7), 1442-1464.
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Karwowski, E., & Stockhammer, E. (2016). Financialisation in Emerging Economies: A Systematic Overview and Comparison with Anglo-Saxon Economies (Working Paper 1616). Post Keynesian Economics Study Group. http://www.postkeynesian.net/downloads/working-papers/PKWP1616_haHHGZM.pdf.
Lake, R. W. (2015). The financialization of urban policy in the age of Obama. Journal of Urban Affairs, 37, 75-78.
Lapavitsas, C. (2013). The financialization of capitalism: ‘Profiting without producing’. City, 17(6), 792-805.
Lapavitsas, C., & Mendieta-Muñoz, I. (2016, July 1). The Profits of Financialization. Monthly Review, 68(3). https://monthlyreview.org/2016/07/01/the-profits-of-financialization/.
Mikuš, M. (2019). Financialization of the state in postsocialist East-Central Europe: conceptualization and operationalization. GEOFIN Working Paper No.3 (Dublin: Trinity College Dublin). https://geofinresearch.eu/outputs/working-papers/.
Ministry of Finance of Serbia. (2021). Public Finance Bulletin, 4/2021 – Bilten javnih finansija, 4/2021 (in Serbian).
Ministry of Finance (2022a). Report on the implementation of the Public Finance Management Reform Program 2021-2025. for 2021 – Izveštaj o sprovođenju Programa reforme upravljanja javnim finansijama 2021-2025.
Ministry of Finance of Serbia. (2022b). Basic indicators of macroeconomic trends/Osnovni indikatori makroekonomskih kretanja (in Serbian, data from excell).
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2022). Macro-economic developments in Serbia.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021b). Report on the dinarization of the Serbian financial system.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021c). Housing loans - review of annual effective rates.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021d). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2020). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2014). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2010). Annual financial stability report.
NKOSK (Nacionalna korporacija za osiguranje stambenih kredita). (2021). Domex index in Serbia. https://www.nkosk.rs/cir/domex--indeks-cena-nepokretnosti-nacionalne-korporacije-za-osiguranje-stambenih-kredita/.
Numbeo. (2023). Property prices in Serbia.
OGRS 72/2015 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia). Strategy for resolving NPLs -Strategija rešavanja nenaplativih kredita (in Serbian).
Palley, T. (2007, October 26–27). Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters. Conference on “Finance-led Capitalism? Macroeconomic Effects of Changes in the Financial Sector,” Berlin, Germany.
Peck, J., & Whiteside, H. (2016). Financializing Detroit. Economic Geography, 92, 235-268.
Radošević, D., & Cvijanović, V. (Eds.) (2015) Financialisation and Financial Crisis in South-Eastern European Countries. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag.
RGA (Republic Geodetic Authority). (2023). Report on the real estate market in the third quarter of 2023. (Izveštaj o stanju na tržištu nepokretnosti u III kvartalu 2023.) https://www.rgz.gov.rs/content/docs/000/000/006/Извештај о стању на тржишту непокретности у III кварталу 2023. године.pdf
Sassen, S. (2017). Predatory Formations Dressed in Wall Street Suits and Algorithmic Math. Science, Technology & Society, 22(1), 6-20.
Savini, F., & Aalbers, M. (2016). The de-contextualization of land use planning through financialisation: Urban redevelopment in Milan. European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(4), 878-894.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2020). Foreign Affiliates in the Republic of Serbia in 2020. https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/oblasti/strukturne-poslovne-statistike/strane-podruznice-u-srbiji.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2022). Construction.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2015). Foreign Affiliates in the Republic of Serbia in 2015. https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/oblasti/strukturne-poslovne-statistike/strane-podruznice-u-srbiji.
Shatkin, G. (2017). The real estate turn in Asia’s urban politics. Cornell University Press.
Waldron, R. (2019). Financialization, urban governance and the planning system: Utilizing ‘development viability’ as a policy narrative for the liberalization of Ireland’s post-crash planning system. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(4), 685-704.
World Bank data (2023). Stocks traded, total value (% of GDP), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/CM.MKT.TRAD.GD.ZS
Zeković, S., Petovar, K., & Nor-Hisham, B. M. S. (2020). The credibility of illegal and informal construction: Assessing legalization policies in Serbia. Cities, 97, 102548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102548
Zeković S., Perić A., & Hadžić M. (2023). The financialization of ‘the urban’ in post-socialist Serbia: evidence from the Belgrade Waterfront megaproject, Journal of Urban Affairs, published online 7 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2239962
Aalbers, M. (2019). Financialization. In D. Richardson, N. Castree, M. F. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, & R. A. Marston (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Geography (p.1-12). Oxford: John Wiley and Sons.
Anguelov, D., Leitner, H., & Sheppard, E. (2018). Engineering the Financialization of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The JESSICA Urban Development Initiative in the European Union. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 42(4), 573-593.
Bartlett, W., & Prica, I. (2013). The deepening crisis in the European super-periphery. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 15(4), 367-382.
Becker, J., Jäger, J., Leubolt, B., & Weissenbacher, R. (2010). Peripheral financialization and vulnerability to crisis: A regulationist perspective. Competition & Change, 14(3-4), 225-247.
BELEX (Beogradska berza). (2022). Annual Statistics. https://www.belex.rs/eng/trgovanje/izvestaj/godisnji.
BIS (Bank of International Settlements). (2023). Residential property prices, https://www.bis.org/statistics/pp_residential_2311.htm https://www.bis.org/statistics/pp.htm
BIS (Bank of International Settlements). (2023). Total credit to the non-financial sector (core debt). https://stats.bis.org/statx/srs/table/f1.1. https://www.bis.org/statistics/pp/disclaimer.htm
Büdenbender, M., & Aalbers, M. (2019). How subordinate financialization shapes urban development: The rise and fall of Warsaw’s Służewiec business district. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(4), 666-684.
CEIC data (2023). Serbia Market Capitalization: % of GDP. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/serbia/market-capitalization--nominal-gdp.
CEIC, (2023) https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/household-debt--of-nominal-gdp
Dore, R. (2000). Stock Market Capitalism: Japan and Germany versus the Anglo-Saxons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dvorsky S., Scheiber T., & Stix H. (2010). Real Effects of Crisis Have Reached CESEE Households: Euro Survey Shows Dampened Savings and Changes in Borrowing Behavior. Focus on European Economic Integration, 2, 79-90.
Elhefnawy, N. (2020). Keynesian Fordism and Neoliberal Financialization: A Comparison of Economic Models. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3685990 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3685990
Epstein, G. A. (2005). Introduction: Financialization and the World Economy. In G. A. Epstein (Ed.), Financialization and the World Economy (pp.3-16). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Eurostat. (2021a). Online data code (bop_c6a Eurostat credit).
Eurostat. (2021b). Online data code (nasa_10_f_bs).
Eurostat. (2023). First quarter of 2023: Government debt down to 91.2% of GDP in euro area. Eurostat. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/17206540/2-21072023-AP-EN.pdf/5d83466f-811a-750a-4c5c-906cc7a313ef
Gabor, D. V. (2012). The road to financialization in Central and Eastern Europe: The early policies and politics of stabilizing transition. Review of Political Economy, 24(2), 227-249.
Georgia, A., & Janoschka, M. (2017). Who loses and who wins in a housing crisis? Lessons from Spain and Greece for a nuanced understanding of dispossession. Housing Policy Debate, 21(1), 117-134.
Göler, D. (2005). South-east Europe as European periphery? Empirical and theoretical aspects. In Serbia and modern processes in Europe and the world (pp.137-142). Belgrade: University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography.
Guironnet, A., Attuyer, K., & Halbert L. (2016). Building Cities on Financial Assets: The Financialization of Property Markets and Its Implications for City Governments in the Paris City-Region. Urban Studies, 53(7), 1442-1464.
Hendrikse, R. (2016). The Long Arm of Finance: Exploring the Unlikely Financialization of Governments and Public Institutions [Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research]. https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=07dd1c7c-ffba-42db-910c-f6e79a5cd3b4.
Horodecka, A., & Zuk, A. (2021). Financialization and the erosion of the common good. Studia humana, 10(2), 3-14.
IMF (International Monetary Fund). (2021). Republic of Serbia, Fifth review under the policy coordination instrument - Press release, and Staff report (IMF Country Report No.21/8).
Karwowski, E., & Stockhammer, E. (2016). Financialisation in Emerging Economies: A Systematic Overview and Comparison with Anglo-Saxon Economies (Working Paper 1616). Post Keynesian Economics Study Group. http://www.postkeynesian.net/downloads/working-papers/PKWP1616_haHHGZM.pdf.
Lake, R. W. (2015). The financialization of urban policy in the age of Obama. Journal of Urban Affairs, 37, 75-78.
Lapavitsas, C. (2013). The financialization of capitalism: ‘Profiting without producing’. City, 17(6), 792-805.
Lapavitsas, C., & Mendieta-Muñoz, I. (2016, July 1). The Profits of Financialization. Monthly Review, 68(3). https://monthlyreview.org/2016/07/01/the-profits-of-financialization/.
Mikuš, M. (2019). Financialization of the state in postsocialist East-Central Europe: conceptualization and operationalization. GEOFIN Working Paper No.3 (Dublin: Trinity College Dublin). https://geofinresearch.eu/outputs/working-papers/.
Ministry of Finance of Serbia. (2021). Public Finance Bulletin, 4/2021 – Bilten javnih finansija, 4/2021 (in Serbian).
Ministry of Finance (2022a). Report on the implementation of the Public Finance Management Reform Program 2021-2025. for 2021 – Izveštaj o sprovođenju Programa reforme upravljanja javnim finansijama 2021-2025.
Ministry of Finance of Serbia. (2022b). Basic indicators of macroeconomic trends/Osnovni indikatori makroekonomskih kretanja (in Serbian, data from excell).
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2022). Macro-economic developments in Serbia.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021b). Report on the dinarization of the Serbian financial system.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021c). Housing loans - review of annual effective rates.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2021d). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2020). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2014). Annual financial stability report.
NBS (National Bank of Serbia). (2010). Annual financial stability report.
NKOSK (Nacionalna korporacija za osiguranje stambenih kredita). (2021). Domex index in Serbia. https://www.nkosk.rs/cir/domex--indeks-cena-nepokretnosti-nacionalne-korporacije-za-osiguranje-stambenih-kredita/.
Numbeo. (2023). Property prices in Serbia.
OGRS 72/2015 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia). Strategy for resolving NPLs -Strategija rešavanja nenaplativih kredita (in Serbian).
Palley, T. (2007, October 26–27). Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters. Conference on “Finance-led Capitalism? Macroeconomic Effects of Changes in the Financial Sector,” Berlin, Germany.
Peck, J., & Whiteside, H. (2016). Financializing Detroit. Economic Geography, 92, 235-268.
Radošević, D., & Cvijanović, V. (Eds.) (2015) Financialisation and Financial Crisis in South-Eastern European Countries. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag.
RGA (Republic Geodetic Authority). (2023). Report on the real estate market in the third quarter of 2023. (Izveštaj o stanju na tržištu nepokretnosti u III kvartalu 2023.) https://www.rgz.gov.rs/content/docs/000/000/006/Извештај о стању на тржишту непокретности у III кварталу 2023. године.pdf
Sassen, S. (2017). Predatory Formations Dressed in Wall Street Suits and Algorithmic Math. Science, Technology & Society, 22(1), 6-20.
Savini, F., & Aalbers, M. (2016). The de-contextualization of land use planning through financialisation: Urban redevelopment in Milan. European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(4), 878-894.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2020). Foreign Affiliates in the Republic of Serbia in 2020. https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/oblasti/strukturne-poslovne-statistike/strane-podruznice-u-srbiji.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2022). Construction.
SORS (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia). (2015). Foreign Affiliates in the Republic of Serbia in 2015. https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/oblasti/strukturne-poslovne-statistike/strane-podruznice-u-srbiji.
Shatkin, G. (2017). The real estate turn in Asia’s urban politics. Cornell University Press.
Waldron, R. (2019). Financialization, urban governance and the planning system: Utilizing ‘development viability’ as a policy narrative for the liberalization of Ireland’s post-crash planning system. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(4), 685-704.
World Bank data (2023). Stocks traded, total value (% of GDP), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/CM.MKT.TRAD.GD.ZS
Zeković, S., Petovar, K., & Nor-Hisham, B. M. S. (2020). The credibility of illegal and informal construction: Assessing legalization policies in Serbia. Cities, 97, 102548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102548
Zeković S., Perić A., & Hadžić M. (2023). The financialization of ‘the urban’ in post-socialist Serbia: evidence from the Belgrade Waterfront megaproject, Journal of Urban Affairs, published online 7 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2239962
Published
2024/04/19
Section
Original Scientific Paper
