ABSTRACT
This paper is concerned essentially with the question of how does financial globalization affect economic welfare? Orthodox theory suggests that because of the greater risk-sharing between countries that financial liberalization entails, there should be no welfare losses. Greater risk-sharing should lead to greater smoothing of consumption and/or growth trajectories for developing countries. Yet there is widespread evidence of crises following liberalization. Apart from these international macro-economic issues, it is argued here that financial globalization changes the very nature of capitalism from managerial to finance capitalism. This profoundly affects at the micro-economic level corporate governance, corporate finance and income distribution. Both macro-economic and micro-economic factors outlined here influence human development.
