This panel brings together empirical research on the manifold and interdependent relationships between states (state agencies) and finance from multiple disciplinary angles. Contributions from the perspectives of political economy, comparative politics, economic sociology and anthropology of money and finance deal with different characteristics, causes and consequences of state action in financialization processes. The panel focusses on the role of states and central banks as market players and crucial actors in the ongoing construction of financial markets, but also on the institutionalization of financialized debt management practices of states and municipalities. Furthermore, the relationships of financialization, party politics and income inequality are discussed. By contrasting business power vis-à-vis states' own interests, this panel helps to better understand the state-finance nexus.

Benjamin Braun and Daniela Gabor illuminate the emergence of shadow-banking as the co-evolution between central banking and financialization, Benjamin Lemoine addresses the way how sovereignty has historically being contested by the global sovereign bond market, Horacio Ortiz scrutinizes financialization of the state by investigating the notion of risk-free rate of return, Rhea Meyerscough traces the historical evolution of small-dollar consumer credit institutions in comparative perspective, and Christine Trampusch and Florian Fastenrath examine business power and its limits in municipal derivatives market regulation in the US and UK.