Research team tackles the big question

Leeds University is leading a multi-million pound international research project into ways to make the financial system better serve Europe’s economic, social and environmental needs. The five-year project brings together economists and other social scientists to look at how the increasing dominance of the financial system over other parts of the economy has affected the performances of national economies and the global economy over the last three decades.

Malcolm Sawyer, Professor of Economics at Leeds University, said: “We need to know what can be done to make the financial system work for society, the economy and the environment and not – as has sometimes been the case – the other way round.

“The key questions we will be looking at include: how has financialisation affected the achievement of economic, social, and environmental objectives?

“What is the nature of the relationship between financialisation and the sustainability of the financial system, economic development and the environment?

“What lessons are to be drawn from the crisis about the nature and evolution of finance?”

The project is funded mostly by the European Commission and involves 14 institutions.

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