New geographies of European financial competition? Frankfurt, Paris and the political economy of Brexit

Abstract

opportunities for alternative financial centres located inside the remaining EU member states. In this article, we assess the strategic positioning of private and public actors within two European IFCs-Frankfurt and Paris-in the period following the Brexit vote. Agents within these centres are seeking to differentially benefit from Brexit in two vulnerable financial subsectors away from the City and by domestic and European regulatory reforms. In light of these findings we argue that existing approaches to financial centre relations-in particular-should engage with the ways in which political actors shape European financial relations and regulatory convergence after Brexit, new competitive orientations are also in evidence as political actors seek to privilege their territories relative to rival spaces. *Manuscript without author identifiers (ensure filename does not include author name) Click here to download Manuscript without author identifiers (ensure filename does not include author name): Manuscript.docx Click here to view linked References Highlights

The emerging geography of European financial centres: Fragmentation in the European Union and concentration in the UK?

“…This approach stresses the transnational network of economic actors, particularly business service firms, based in international financial centres such as New York, London and Tokyo that shape the international financial system. Reflecting its focus on economic actors, this work underlines how the global financial architecture is shaped by the corporate decisions of global services providers, rather than the deliberate political actions of cities and states (Hall, 2017; Lavery et al, 2018).…”

“…Whilst Europe’s financial centres will benefit from local and national political support in luring activities away from London through media campaigns and regulatory inducements, the mid-tier and emerging financial centres are characterised by a lack of political power to resist the concentration of activities in London. The contrast is most stark between the UK and Germany, where strong local and regional government has been influential in Frankfurt’s emergence as a banking hub within the Single Market (Lavery et al, 2018, 2019; Wojcik and MacDonald-Korth, 2015). In Germany, the 16 Länder have a formal channel of communication into Germany’s Brexit stance through the Bund-Länder Arbeitsgruppe (federal–regional working group).…”

Introducing ‘Brexit Geographies’: five provocations

“…Six conclusions are garnering favour in the research community: first. Brexit is already impacting negatively on the UK economy (a claim affirmed periodically and surely by Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney); second, Brexit is likely to depress the UK economy into the foreseeable future (Dhingra et al 2016); third, the harder the Brexit the more damaging its effects will be (Greater London Authority, 2018); fourth, it will be difficult for good trade deals with other countries to mitigate losses incurred by reduced trade with the EU in the short and medium term (Colantone & Stanig, 2018;Dhingra, Ottaviano, Rappoport, Sampson, & Thomas, 2018); fifth, city-regions in the UK will be more impacted than those in the rest of the EU, with the exception of the Republic of Ireland (Chen et al, 2018;Lai & Pan, 2018;Lavery, McDaniel, & Schmid, 2018); sixth, Brexit will have different consequences for different UK cityregions (and also rural areassee Maye in this collection, and social and demographic groupssee MacLeavy in this SI), ironically impacting most negatively those northern city-regions and rustbelt blue collar towns who voted for it (Di Cataldo, 2017;Dhingra, Machin, & Overman, 2017a;Dhingra, Ottaviano, & Sampson Dörry, 2017b;Greater London Authority Report, 2018;Hall & Wójcik, 2018;Los, McCann, Springford, & Thissen, 2017;McCann, 2018;North, 2017). These problems have been magnified by the UK government's poor level of preparedness for Brexit.…”

Agency and practice in the making of global cities: towards a renewed research agenda

“…The current debate on Brexit and its implications for London in contrast provides an example of potential un-making through geopolitical and geoeconomic 'separation and disentanglement' (Dörry, 2017, p. 1). With its emphasis on the role of political actors in shaping financial centre relations (Lavery et al, 2018) this debate brings to the fore 'questions of power and politics within the global economy' (Hall, 2018, p. 194) as key aspects of global city making and un-making.…”