Banking and Finance in Transition in the Baltic Region


Field: Ekonomisk historia
Project leader: Mats Larsson
Starting year: 1999
Project type: Project

This research programme focuses on current changes on the financial markets in the Baltic region. During the last ten years financial markets have changed considerably in the western countries as well as in the transition economies. The question of legitimacy for the financial system has become a major problem since several western European countries experienced a financial crisis in the 1990s. These crises had a great impact on the structure of financial organizations on the one hand, and on the general confidence for banks and other financial actors on the other. In the transition economies in the Baltic area, the creation of a financial system is one of the corner stones in the establishment of a new economic system. It is therefore an urgent task to pursue a comprehensive study of current change in the financial systems in the Baltic area.

The importances of institutions in general, and of the development of the legal framework in particular, are stressed in current research. Recent structural change in transition economies and central banking will be illuminated by one group of researchers.

The functioning and the role of the stock market and the derivatives market is another major research area closely related to the structural changes and the development of financial markets. Recent trends in these markets will be analyzed from a comparative perspective.

The importance of risk management is a third field of research. The attention is drawn to relations between actors and markets in two research projects which study the role of information flow to reduce risk exposure and in another project which scrutinize the importance of stable financial facilities to promote export generated growth.