Misa (2018) Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators. Nature Climate Change, 8 (6). pp. 462-468.

Policy makers are increasingly embracing the idea of using industrial and innovation policy to tackle the 'grand challenges' facing modern societies. This article argues that through well-defined goals, or more specifically 'missions', that are focused on solving important societal challenges, policymakers have the opportunity to determine the direction of growth by making strategic investments across many different sectors and nurturing new industrial landscapes, which the private sector can develop further, and as a result induce cross-sectoral learning and increase macroeconomic stability. This 'mission-oriented' approach to industrial policy is not about 'top down' planning by an overbearing state; it is about providing a direction for growth and increasing business expectations about future growth areas and catalysing activity that otherwise would not happen. It is not about de-risking and levelling the playing field, nor about supporting more competitive sectors over less since the market does not always 'know best' but tilting the playing field in the direction of the desired societal goals, such as the sustainable development goals. To achieve this requires a different policy framework, what we call the 'ROAR' framework, which involves strategic thinking about the desired direction of travel (Routes), the structure and capacity of public sector Organisations, the way in which policy is Assessed and the incentive structure for both private and public sectors (Risks and Rewards). The article argues that if we want to take grand challenges such as the SDGs seriously as policy goals, market shaping should become the overarching approach followed in various policy fields.

No abstract

This paper argues that the housing affordability and wealth inequality crises facing advanced economies are driven by the emergence of a feedback cycle between finance and landed property. The cycle has been created by the increasing policy preference for private home ownership coupled with the liberalisation of bank credit and accompanying financial innovation. Under such conditions, landed property becomes both the most attractive form of collateral for the banking system and the most desirable form of financial asset for households and investors. The housing-finance cycle emerged in Anglo-Saxon economies in the 1980s but has since spread to most advanced economies. Demand-side reforms, more than supply-side reforms that dominate policy discussion, are required to break this cycle. Two reforms are discussed: 1) structural and institutional reforms to banking systems, including central banks; and 2) land policy reforms targeted at reducing the potential for rent extraction and speculative profits from property ownership.

No abstract