Financial Institutions: A Study of Real Linkages and Policy Influence


This research project studies how the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association operate and the factors that help shape the extent to which they are able to ensure financial stability from a public-interest standpoint.

Little has been written about the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association even though their decisions significantly affect global financial stability. Furthermore, the financial system continues to rely on them to set standards that inhibit or facilitate stability and thus also can help avert, or not avert, future financial crises. This project contributed to new economic thinking by demonstrating how expertise, theory, and methods from social anthropology can illuminate the workings of signature financial institutions and processes.