2nd YSI/FLE Meetup

The lockdown continues and so does our research, but you are not alone in this! Join the Finance, Law and Economics Working Group for its second meetup on Wednesday, April 15th at 5 pm CET.
In the next meetup, we will discuss with Martino Reviglio about his work on "Multinational Companies and The Business Cycle" (See Abstract and Bio below).
As anticipated there will be a short presentation (15 min) followed by an informal discussion (15/20 min).
This meetup will be a good way for us, members of the Finance, Law, Economics working group, to stay in touch and make everybody feel more energized and motivated.
If you want to present in one of the following meetups, you can send us an abstract of 300 words to:
luisa.scarcella91@outlook.com; astojanovic@ineteconomics.org
We accept presentation proposals on a rolling basis.
See you online!

ABSTRACT
In contemporary capitalism some multinational companies possess assets across the world higher than the gross domestic product of some developed countries such as Portugal, Greece and Austria. Nowadays in most economies any business of substance depends from a multinational company. These are becoming powerful private global actors that are able to influence economic and political outcomes in many parts of the world. More importantly – from an economic theory perspective – multinational companies can be regarded as the driver forces of the business cycle. In fact, multinational companies’ investments determine the levels of production and employment in contemporary capitalism. From the nineteenth eighties there was significant expansion of financial activities and financial deregulation, processes that gave rise to a significant hegemony of the financial sphere on the industrial one.
In this contest one of the most important financial innovations was determined by the elimination of capital controls in United Kingdom and in North America. This innovation paved the way for the emergence of a specific kind of multinational companies the so called financially enhanced multinational companies. Analysing the expansion of multinational companies involve an historical investigation of the social and economic dynamics with the recognition of existent relations of production within the economic system. Since most of the studies on multinational companies adopt a micro perspective the thesis considers their role from a macro perspective. In fact, a macro perspective can offer more significant elements to understand the role of multinational companies in contemporary capitalism.
The paper explores some of the dynamics that characterized the emergence of multinational companies. In particular, it recognizes – building on Michal Kalecki’s business cycle theory – their crucial role in channeling investments to maintain the equilibrium in the business cycle. Moreover, the paper shows how after the financial crisis the level of investments decreased significantly in many countries. Thus, it is essential to explain through the support of economic theories the key role that multinational companies play in channelling investments in light of contemporary neoliberal globalisation.

Bio
Martino Reviglio holds a B.A. in European Studies (Maastricht University), a M.A. in History (Utrecht University) and M.Sc. in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance (International University College of Turin). Currently, he is a third year Ph.D. candidate in International Law at the University of Turin, Italy. Moreover, Martino has worked as an intern at the European Parliament, and as a consultant at the Department of European Affairs of the Council of Ministers of Italy. This paper is based on his MSc dissertation written under the supervision of Jan Toporowski (SOAS) that his Michal Kalecki biographer.