Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas

Date: 

Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 4:00pm to 5:30pm


This event is virtual, to register click here.

Speaker: Stephen Kaplan, Associate Professor of Political Science and Economic Affairs, George Washington University

This book explores how China’s state-led capitalism affects national level governance. China, as the world’s largest saver, has more than doubled its overseas banking presence since the 2008 global financial crisis. Compared to the West’s private-sector capital, China’s overseas financing is a distinct form of patient capital that marshals the country’s vast domestic financial resources to create commercial opportunities internationally. Its long-term horizon, high risk tolerance, and lack of policy conditionality have allowed developing economies to sidestep the fiscal austerity tendencies of Western markets and multilaterals. Employing a multi-method research strategy that includes statistical tests and extensive field research from across China and Latin America, this book finds that China’s patient capital endows national governments more room to maneuver in formulating their domestic economic policies. This book also evaluates the potential costs of Chinese financing, raising the question of how Chinese lenders will deal with developing nations’ ongoing struggles with debt and dependency.

Presented in collaboration with Fairbank Center for Chinese Study