ABSTRACT
The predominant view in scholarship has been that increased capital mobility under financial globalization accentuates the structural power of finance and limits the policy space of central banks in emerging economies. The power of finance is argued to constrain monetary policymakers in their decision-making, leading them to conform to the financial community’s policy preferences. This chapter explores how the central banks of South Africa and Turkey respond to these pressures ‘on the ground’. Based on extensive interviews with central bankers and financiers, it examines how the two central banks utilize private meetings and roadshows to strategically influence market expectations and promote investments in their economies. The chapter contributes to the political economy of central banking literature by providing a sociological account of the concrete processes by which investor confidence is built and maintained on the ground through in-person encounters between central bankers and financiers.
