Journal Articles

Iliopoulos, P., & De Witte, K. (2024). The Expenditure Composition and Trade-offs in Local Government Budgets. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences.

Abstract: The fiscal behavior of local governments has gained additional attention from academia and policymakers due to decentralization reforms transferring power from central to lower levels of government. As local governments assume more responsibilities for public goods and services, understanding their expenditure composition and trade-offs becomes crucial. While existing literature has examined the factors influencing the size of local government budgets, less attention has been given to the decision-making mechanisms and trade-offs within budget allocations. This study investigates the expenditure composition of 300 Flemish municipalities, using an unsupervised clustering algorithm and a binary logistic regression framework. Our results are indicative of how local governments tend to prioritize specific policy areas in the design of their budgets, when they operate under strict institutional and fiscal constraints such as a balanced budget rule.

Gouzoulis, G., Galanis, G., & Iliopoulos, P. (Takis). (2024). Financialisation, shareholder value orientation, and the decline of trade union membership in the EU. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research.

Abstract: This article shows that an orientation towards shareholder value and corporate indebtedness at non-financial firms have been negatively associated with union density in the EU over the past 21 years. We argue that the financialisation of non-financial firms makes them prioritise their ‘external (economic) balance’ at the expense of a cooperative ‘internal equilibrium’ model. In other words, corporate financialisation pushes non-financial firms to shift to non-participatory, market-based HR systems that directly undermine the role of trade unions. This study examines this corporate financialisation-induced shift within the EU in the wake of deeper economic integration since 1999 and provides panel data econometric evidence that it has significantly undermined union membership.

Iliopoulos, P., Ioannou, S., & Wójcik, D. (2024). The City of London After Brexit: Sticky Power in the Global Financial Network. Progress in Economic Geography, 100011.

Abstract: We examine the impact of Brexit on London as an international financial centre through the lens of the global financial network (GFN) framework, using quantitative data on selected key financial flows and stocks, as well as qualitative data from interviews and other sources. Our results show very limited impacts on London, and possible gains in New York and the USA rather than in the European Union. The results are compatible with the logic and history of sticky power in the global financial network. Despite some relocations from London, Brexit has not (yet) undermined London’s attractiveness to financial and business services, and the global connectivity they afford to London as an international financial centre. London remains the global conductor of offshore jurisdictions, a role which may be enhanced with more flexible regulation after Brexit. Any forecasts about the future impacts of Brexit on London need to consider the sticky power of the global financial network, and close relationships among its building blocks.

Ioannou, S., Iliopoulos, P., & Wójcik, D. (2023). Too-big-to-fail banking in Europe. An enduring challenge. Review of Political Economy.

Abstract: In this paper we discuss too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banking in the European Union. Using mixed methods, we first provide a critical overview of the most important bank reforms implemented since the 2010 crisis. Following, we examine whether financial markets still expect government bailout support for European TBTF banks, if need be. We address this question in two ways, first by using a novel set of primary data, gathered from fieldwork in Europe; and second, by quantitatively analysing bank ratings for a large sample of European banks. Our results suggest that financial markets still expect government support for TBTF banks. Indicatively, global systemically important banks command a long-term credit rating about three notches higher than what it would be in the absence of the expectation of government support. Banks identified as TBTF at the national level enjoy significant rating uplifts too, confirming TBTF as a multi-layered issue.

Gouzoulis, G., Iliopoulos, P., & Galanis, G. (2023). Financialization and the Rise of Atypical Work. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 61, 24-45.

Abstract: The current literature on financialisation and the labour process focuses disproportionately on how corporate financialisation induces the use of atypical work and largely overlooks the role of household financialisation. This paper presents several mechanisms through which household debt and pension fund financialisation increase the financial insecurity of employees, which, in turn, can curb their resistance to accepting such work contracts. To assess our arguments, we estimate the effects of corporate and household financialisation on involuntary part-time and temporary employment, using a panel dataset of OECD economies. Our findings provide robust support that financialisation increases significantly non-standard employment rates for the total workforce and women, but less for older employees.

Iliopoulos, P. (Takis), & Wójcik, D. (2022). The Multiple Faces of Financialization: Financial and Business Services in the US Economy, 1997 – 2020. Competition & Change, 27(5), 707-728.

Abstract: The literature on financialization tends to overemphasize the increasing size of the financial sector vis-á-vis the rest of the non-financial business sector, usually excluding from the analysis the inter-sectoral relationships between firms. Moreover, few studies have utilized the analytical tools of network theory and the notion of centrality, despite the fact that they conceptualize financialization as the rising centrality of the financial sector. This paper attempts to address these issues and explore the evolution of financialization in the US economy before and after the subprime crisis, investigating the changes in the position of the financial sector. Informed by financial geography and the framework of Global Financial Networks (GFN), we also shed light on the impacts of financialization on those advanced business services sectors that complement financial activity, such as accounting, law, business consulting, and other business services firms. Empirically, we estimate backward and forward inter-sectoral linkages, clustering coefficients, and measures of centrality, utilizing a long time- series of input-output tables at a highly disaggregated level, in order to study the inter-sectoral evolution of financialization in the US.

Iliopoulos, P. (Takis), Galanis, G., Kumar, A., & Popoyan, L. (2022). Sectoral Market Power in Global Production: A Theoretical and Observational Study. Advances in Complex Systems, 25(02n03).

Abstract: In a globalized world, the distribution of value-added across firms depends on a number of factors that vary across space. A key factor is related to the different types of competition on the multilayer structure of production, which are characterized by different types of (market) power. In this paper, we first argue that PageRank centrality is able to capture sectoral market power within the complex structure of global production. We then study the empirical properties of this market power measure and demonstrate a power-law relationship between sectoral PageRank centrality and relative sectoral profits. This power-law relationship has (international) political economy implications as it demonstrates the high incentives of sectors to become more central to increase their relative profits.

Iliopoulos, P. (Takis). (2022). A quantitative analysis of governance structures in the world economy. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 599, 127486.

Abstract: In this article I explore a new quantitative approach for the analysis of buyer–supplier relationships in GVCs. Following the growing literatures of complex and social network analysis, I estimate the degree of hierarchicality of GVCs, taking into account the information of economic transactions between sectors in 190 countries of the world economy, gathered within the structures of the Global Multi-Regional Input-Output Tables of the EORA Database. In that way, I explore the spatiotemporal evolution of the hierarchicality of value-chains and provide a quantitative link between the buyer–supplier relationships of global industries and the categories of governance structures proposed by the respective theories. To the best of my knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to empirically map and quantify governance structures in the world economy.