Post-socialist financialization: the experience of Serbia

Abstract

The paper explores the growing financialization in Serbia in the post-crisis period from 2008 to 2021. The research includes an overview of the theoretical background of financialization based on the neoclassical and heterodox understandings of this process. The empirical analysis of the financialization of residential and non-residential properties at national level will be used. From the aspect of financialization, it would provide insight into the relationship between the financial system, macroeconomic developments and urban (re)development in the post-socialist practice. Moreover, a comparative ex-post analysis of the process of financialization in Serbia and the selected post-socialist countries of CEE and SEE based on the quantitative research will be presented. The empirical exploration shall be conducted within two domains: firstly, through the identification of different dimensions of financialization, such as the transition from a bank-based to a market-based financial system, the inflows of foreign financial investment (including FDI), the financialization of non-financial corporations and the population, and urban financialization; secondly, through financialization indicators and urban real estate indicators, relevant to the main dimensions, by comparing them with the EU average and with some countries of the CEE and SEE. The findings may indicate the interweaving of the global financial and macroeconomic trends and the financial capital investment in the real estate markets with the urban re/development process.