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<strong>Income</strong> <strong>Dynamics</strong>, <strong>Economic</strong> <strong>Rents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US Economy<br />

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University <strong>of</strong> Massachusetts, Amherst 1<br />

Ken-Hou Lin, University <strong>of</strong> Massachusetts, Amherst<br />

1 Draft 8-23-2010. We thank Dustin Avent-Holt, Alan Dorsey, Larry Devey, Emily Erikson, Gre-<br />

ta Krippner, James Crotty, <strong>and</strong> Art Sakamoto for generous comments on <strong>the</strong> paper <strong>and</strong> to How-<br />

ard Krakower <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis for help with <strong>the</strong> National <strong>Income</strong> <strong>and</strong> Prod-<br />

uct Accounts. This research is being supported by <strong>the</strong> National Science Foundation under grant<br />

SES- 0956273. Please send correspondence to tomaskovic-devey@soc.umass.edu.<br />

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1539162<br />

1


ABSTRACT<br />

<strong>Income</strong> <strong>Dynamics</strong>, <strong>Economic</strong> <strong>Rents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US Economy<br />

This paper examines <strong>the</strong> income dynamics associated with <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US econo-<br />

my. We advance a rent based explanation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> shift in US incomes into <strong>the</strong> finance sector. We<br />

document both changes in income distributions <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> institutional transformations that facili-<br />

tated this process. Our analyses shows that long term shifts in institutional practices favor <strong>the</strong><br />

accumulation <strong>of</strong> income rents in <strong>the</strong> finance sector. Most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> increased banking industry in-<br />

come went to pr<strong>of</strong>its ra<strong>the</strong>r than employee earnings. In contrast, <strong>the</strong> securities industry showed<br />

increasing pr<strong>of</strong>it accumulation only after 2000, while employees in this industry made extraordi-<br />

narily strong income gains beginning in 1980 <strong>and</strong> continuing through 2008. Where <strong>the</strong>y occurred,<br />

employee income gains were largely limited to managerial, pr<strong>of</strong>essional <strong>and</strong> sales occupations.<br />

White men benefited as well. Across <strong>the</strong> whole finance sector excess income rents since 1980<br />

totals between 4.5 <strong>and</strong> 5.1 trillion dollars, half <strong>of</strong> which were realized since <strong>the</strong> year 2000. Be-<br />

tween 60 <strong>and</strong> 70 percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se rents were realized as excess pr<strong>of</strong>its, while <strong>the</strong> remainder as<br />

increased employment <strong>and</strong> compensation for employees in this sector.<br />

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1539162<br />

2


“I think everybody a few years ago got caught up in <strong>the</strong> idea that <strong>the</strong> markets are self-correcting<br />

<strong>and</strong> self-disciplined, <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong> people in Wall Street will do a better job protecting <strong>the</strong> financial<br />

system than <strong>the</strong> regulators would? I do think <strong>the</strong> S.E.C. got diverted by that philosophy.”<br />

(Mary Shapiro, Chair U.S. Securities <strong>and</strong> Exchange Commission 2010).<br />

Introduction<br />

This paper explores <strong>the</strong> income dynamics associated with <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy<br />

between 1980 <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2008 collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US financial system. <strong>Financialization</strong> refers to two<br />

interlocked processes. The first is <strong>the</strong> increasing centrality <strong>of</strong> firms in <strong>the</strong> finance sector to <strong>the</strong><br />

whole economy. Second is <strong>the</strong> increased investment in financial activity by all actors in <strong>the</strong><br />

economy, including non-financial firms. <strong>Financialization</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy accelerated after<br />

<strong>the</strong> deregulation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> banking industry in <strong>the</strong> 1980s <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> adoption by <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve<br />

<strong>and</strong> Securities <strong>and</strong> Exchange Commission <strong>of</strong> a passive approach to banking <strong>and</strong> investment regu-<br />

lation (Kripner fc). <strong>Financialization</strong> is now recognized as central to <strong>the</strong> larger pattern <strong>of</strong> neoli-<br />

beral reform in <strong>the</strong> post 1980 period (Prasad 2006; Fourcade-Gourinchas <strong>and</strong> Babb 2002). It is<br />

also now widely recognized that <strong>the</strong> current financial crisis <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> investment bubbles that pre-<br />

ceded it were facilitated, if not initiated, by <strong>the</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> government regulation <strong>of</strong> new financial<br />

instruments <strong>and</strong> practices invented during this period <strong>of</strong> financialization (Davis 2009).<br />

The 2008 collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector has been properly blamed on <strong>the</strong> rise in real estate<br />

prices, <strong>the</strong> issuing <strong>of</strong> mortgages to high risk applicants, <strong>the</strong> linked speculation in mortgage<br />

backed derivatives <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> speculative real estate investment bubble <strong>the</strong>y jointly produced (Fligs-<br />

tein <strong>and</strong> Goldstein 2010). This account, however, misses <strong>the</strong> historical <strong>and</strong> institutional devel-<br />

opments that facilitated financialization. It is <strong>the</strong>se longer term institutional transformations<br />

which provided <strong>the</strong> yeast for this particular investment bubble. The historical antecedents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

contemporary crisis <strong>and</strong> its implications for income distributions more broadly are also easily<br />

3


overlooked in <strong>the</strong> search for proximate causes <strong>of</strong> financial collapse. Building on recent research<br />

on <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy, this paper outlines <strong>the</strong> institutional shifts that pro-<br />

duced substantial economic rents in <strong>the</strong> finance sector, documents <strong>the</strong> income distribution conse-<br />

quences <strong>of</strong> post-1980 financialization, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> fur<strong>the</strong>r influx <strong>of</strong> income into this sector after 2000.<br />

In <strong>the</strong> conclusion we speculate on <strong>the</strong> redistribution potential <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2008-2009 financial collapse.<br />

This paper proceeds in five section. First, we extend prior time series that demonstrate <strong>the</strong><br />

shift in national income into <strong>the</strong> finance sector since 1980. Not surprisingly, we show that <strong>the</strong><br />

growing dominance <strong>of</strong> financial activity post-1980 continued its rapid growth from 2000 to 2008.<br />

Second, we review <strong>and</strong> extend sociological rent <strong>the</strong>ory as a possible explanation as to why in-<br />

come accumulated in <strong>the</strong> finance sector. We argue that financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy<br />

created a rent structure which since early 1980s increasingly channeled national resource into <strong>the</strong><br />

financial sector. Third, we recount an institutional explanation <strong>of</strong> financialization, including po-<br />

litical <strong>and</strong> economic processes which favored <strong>the</strong> finance sector <strong>and</strong> short term financial specula-<br />

tion over physical capital <strong>and</strong> long term investment horizons. Our analysis shows that <strong>the</strong> finan-<br />

cialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy was a result <strong>of</strong> alliance formation among multiple actors, <strong>and</strong> that<br />

<strong>the</strong>se alliances took both regulatory <strong>and</strong> organizational forms. We also discuss how neoliberal<br />

ideology contributed to this process <strong>and</strong>, later, justified <strong>the</strong> hidden rent structure. Fourth, we ex-<br />

amine <strong>the</strong> distributional consequences <strong>of</strong> finance sector rents, documenting which actors – own-<br />

ers <strong>and</strong> classes <strong>of</strong> employees benefited. Finally, we conclude with a discussion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> potential<br />

rent destruction <strong>and</strong> preservation politics <strong>of</strong> 2008-2010.<br />

We intend to make contributions to three literatures. For <strong>the</strong> literature on <strong>the</strong> financializa-<br />

tion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy we extend existing time series through 2008 <strong>and</strong> add industry specific<br />

details on both pr<strong>of</strong>it <strong>and</strong> employee earnings dynamics. The latter is also a contribution to <strong>the</strong><br />

4


economic sociology <strong>and</strong> political economy <strong>of</strong> financialization because we demonstrate <strong>the</strong> in-<br />

come distribution consequences <strong>of</strong> financialization, a dimension <strong>of</strong> financialization that has been<br />

implied but not examined in <strong>the</strong> past. Finally, we deepen <strong>the</strong> sociological application <strong>of</strong> rent<br />

<strong>the</strong>ory by stressing <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> observing (ra<strong>the</strong>r than conjecturing) <strong>the</strong> political, market<br />

<strong>and</strong> institutional processes that generate market power <strong>and</strong> so income rents, develop our institu-<br />

tional analyses with an eye to multiple actors, including consumers, <strong>the</strong> finance sector, <strong>the</strong> busi-<br />

ness community more generally, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> state, <strong>and</strong> point out <strong>the</strong> potential role <strong>of</strong> politically me-<br />

diated problem solving producing unintended consequences for rent creation <strong>and</strong> destruction.<br />

1. Evidence <strong>of</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong>.<br />

There is a small but convincing literature analyzing <strong>the</strong> shift <strong>of</strong> economic activity in <strong>the</strong> United<br />

States from manufacturing <strong>and</strong> service activity to financially oriented investment <strong>and</strong> managerial<br />

strategies. Epstein <strong>and</strong> Jayadev (2005) show that <strong>the</strong> finance share (which <strong>the</strong>y define as finance<br />

sector income plus interest income in non-finance sectors) <strong>of</strong> national income rose 18% (abso-<br />

lutely, not relatively) in <strong>the</strong> US after 1980. 2 Similarly, Krippner (2005) shows that after a long<br />

period <strong>of</strong> post-depression stability, <strong>the</strong> ratio <strong>of</strong> finance income to corporate pr<strong>of</strong>it began to grow<br />

slowly in <strong>the</strong> 1970s, rose dramatically after <strong>the</strong> deregulation <strong>of</strong> banking in <strong>the</strong> early 1980s <strong>and</strong><br />

grew to approximately 40% <strong>of</strong> non-financial sector pr<strong>of</strong>its at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>and</strong> again at <strong>the</strong> end<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1990s. This shift in <strong>the</strong> source <strong>of</strong> non-financial firm revenue was heavily concentrated in<br />

<strong>the</strong> manufacturing sector <strong>and</strong> substantially produced by increased investments in credit, futures<br />

<strong>and</strong> stock market activity. The rise <strong>of</strong> General Motors (through GMAC) <strong>and</strong> GE (through GE<br />

Capital) as major financial actors are probably <strong>the</strong> most familiar examples, although <strong>the</strong> shift <strong>of</strong><br />

2 This much is larger than in any <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r OECD countries. At 10% Australia is <strong>the</strong> next larg-<br />

est.<br />

5


non-financial firms into financial activity was widespread. Not surprisingly, finance sector pr<strong>of</strong>-<br />

its surged during this same period, with <strong>the</strong> finance sector (banks, insurance, securities, real es-<br />

tate) share <strong>of</strong> total pr<strong>of</strong>its shooting up by a factor <strong>of</strong> three to five times (depending on Krippner’s<br />

measure <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its) across <strong>the</strong> period. 3 Philippon <strong>and</strong> Reshef (2007, 2009) document that <strong>the</strong>re<br />

has also been a rise in employee earnings in <strong>the</strong> finance sector since 1980, suggesting that at least<br />

some employees within this sector benefited from financialization. 4 Rauh <strong>and</strong> Kaplan (2007)<br />

show that employees on Wall Street, including CEOs <strong>and</strong> investment managers in commercial<br />

<strong>and</strong> investment banks, banks holding companies, <strong>and</strong> hedge funds made up an increasing share<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> very highest earners in <strong>the</strong> economy.<br />

O<strong>the</strong>r studies find that <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy also had a pr<strong>of</strong>ound impact<br />

on non-financial sector investment in real capital. Stockhammer (2004) estimates a macro-<br />

economic model <strong>of</strong> country level capital investment as a function <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> non-<br />

finance sector pr<strong>of</strong>its, finding that financialization depresses US non-financial capital invest-<br />

ment. 5 The model does not explore <strong>the</strong> influence <strong>of</strong> finance sector growth on capital accumula-<br />

3 In a careful analysis <strong>of</strong> alternative explanations Krippner (fc) demonstrates that financialization<br />

is not a function <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> financial subsidiaries, outsourcing <strong>of</strong> financial functions or <strong>the</strong><br />

globalization <strong>of</strong> trade. In fact, global income flows by US firms show even steeper moves toward<br />

financialization than do domestic production.<br />

4 Although we know <strong>of</strong> no studies, we suspect that <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> non-finance sector,<br />

particularly in manufacturing, may have contributed to <strong>the</strong> trend toward growing income inequa-<br />

lity during <strong>the</strong> same period.<br />

5 Stockhammer (2004) explores similar models for <strong>the</strong> UK, France, <strong>and</strong> Germany. In Germany<br />

where financialization is most recent <strong>and</strong> least developed <strong>the</strong>re is no influence on capital invest-<br />

6


tion but since <strong>the</strong> two trends are linked it suggests that, as non-financial firms increased <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

investment in financial instruments, <strong>the</strong>y inflated <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector even as <strong>the</strong>y<br />

reduced capital investment in production oriented activity. Orhangazi (2008) using firm level<br />

panel data shows that financial payments to finance sector activity (interest, dividends, stock<br />

buy-backs) has had a significantly negative effect on new capital investment by most firms,<br />

while pr<strong>of</strong>it on non-financial firm’s investment in finance instruments has had an additional neg-<br />

ative effect on capital investment among <strong>the</strong> sub-set <strong>of</strong> larger firms. <strong>Financialization</strong> appears to<br />

crowd out capital investment in real productive assets even as it enriches <strong>the</strong> finance sector.<br />

The literature on financialization suggests four provisional conclusions. First, from 1980<br />

to 2000, <strong>the</strong> share <strong>of</strong> national income captured by <strong>the</strong> finance sector rose rapidly. Second, at<br />

least some <strong>of</strong> this income was distributed to employees which led to rapid increase in wage <strong>and</strong><br />

salary for some workers. Third, an increasing proportion <strong>of</strong> total pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> US economy were<br />

realized in <strong>the</strong> finance sector. And finally, <strong>and</strong> linked to this rise in finance sector income, non-<br />

financial firms increasingly made <strong>and</strong> realized financial investments. All <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se conclusions<br />

were reached on data prior to 2001. Taking more recent, pre-crisis, run-up in stock market <strong>and</strong><br />

real estate value, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> final elimination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> few remaining market restraints on banking<br />

behavior by <strong>the</strong> US Congress in 1999 in to consideration, we expect <strong>the</strong>se trends to have contin-<br />

ued, if not accelerate, after 2000.<br />

ment. France where financialization was almost as extreme as in <strong>the</strong> US showed <strong>the</strong> same pattern<br />

<strong>of</strong> depressed non-financial capital investment. In <strong>the</strong> UK which has also seen strong financiali-<br />

zation <strong>the</strong>re is no influence <strong>of</strong> financialization on capital investment, but non-financial capital<br />

investment was already at a very low level.<br />

7


Using National <strong>Income</strong> <strong>and</strong> Product Account data, Figures 1-2 extend <strong>the</strong>se time series to<br />

<strong>the</strong> present. 6 Figure 1 shows that <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Finance Sector as a proportion <strong>of</strong> GDP reported<br />

by Krippner (2005) continued after 2001. 7 By 2007 this sector accounted for almost a quarter <strong>of</strong><br />

all income in <strong>the</strong> US economy. The relative decline <strong>of</strong> manufacturing continued as well.<br />

--Figure 1 about here--<br />

Following Krippner (fc) we report two measures <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its. The first we label pre-tax<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its, this subtracts depreciation allowances from real net income. This exclusion is an ac-<br />

counting practice that recognizes that productive assets wear out. But it is also a policy lever that<br />

exempts some corporate pr<strong>of</strong>it from taxation, presumably in order to encourage capital invest-<br />

ment. Depreciation allowances change over time <strong>and</strong>, to some extent, vary by industry as Con-<br />

gress has attempted to encourage capital investment in specific industries (e.g. oil <strong>and</strong> gas explo-<br />

ration). Thus depreciation is an accounting practice that allows corporations to not count some <strong>of</strong><br />

6 The National <strong>Income</strong> <strong>and</strong> Product Accounts are produced by <strong>the</strong> US Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong><br />

Analysis <strong>and</strong> are <strong>the</strong> primary source <strong>of</strong> data used to estimate <strong>the</strong> Gross National Product <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

United States. These data are primarily derived from income tax returns aggregated to <strong>the</strong> indus-<br />

try level <strong>and</strong> so are more accurate than conventional survey data. See Appendix A for concor-<br />

dance we use to harmonize St<strong>and</strong>ard, North American, <strong>and</strong> Census Bureau Industrial Classifica-<br />

tions across time.<br />

7 Throughout this paper we display time series as ratios <strong>of</strong> national income. This mirrors our<br />

<strong>the</strong>oretical account <strong>of</strong> income rents developed in <strong>the</strong> next section, which treats income dynamics<br />

from a relational ra<strong>the</strong>r than absolute perspective. In addition, focusing on ratios simplifies com-<br />

parisons across time because <strong>the</strong>y control for dynamics associated with inflation, growth <strong>and</strong> to<br />

some extent <strong>the</strong> business cycle.<br />

8


<strong>the</strong>ir pr<strong>of</strong>its as taxable income. Thus, in our second measure we count all corporate pr<strong>of</strong>it (i.e. we<br />

add back depreciation allowances). Krippner (fc) labels this measure corporate cash flow, we<br />

refer to it as realized pr<strong>of</strong>it. This is <strong>the</strong> more accurate measure <strong>of</strong> where in <strong>the</strong> economy pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

are accumulating. While depreciation allowances may be reinvested into new physical capital, in<br />

practice this income can also be distributed to owners, top managers, employees, or as <strong>the</strong> pattern<br />

<strong>of</strong> financialization demonstrates invested in financial assets. Figure 2 displays <strong>the</strong> trends in<br />

finance sector pr<strong>of</strong>it as a percent <strong>of</strong> all private sector pr<strong>of</strong>it since 1948. We report parallel time<br />

series for both measures between 1997 <strong>and</strong> 2000, during this period <strong>the</strong> National <strong>Income</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

Product Accounts shifted from <strong>the</strong> St<strong>and</strong>ard Industrial Classification (SIC) to <strong>the</strong> North America<br />

Industry Classification System (NAICS). The key change for <strong>the</strong> Finance Sector associated with<br />

this shift was <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> a new category <strong>of</strong> Holding Companies that managed financial assets.<br />

This re-categorization shifted a significant proportion <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its from <strong>the</strong> original banking indus-<br />

try to this new category<br />

--Figure 2 about here--<br />

Pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> financial sector as a proportion <strong>of</strong> all pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy grew slowly<br />

between 1948 <strong>and</strong> 1970, dropped across <strong>the</strong> 1970s, <strong>and</strong> increased dramatically after1980. Figure<br />

2 also shows that <strong>the</strong> post-1980 pooling <strong>of</strong> corporate pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> finance sector accelerated af-<br />

ter 2000. Using <strong>the</strong> conventional accounting measure this trend peaked in 2002 when fully 45%<br />

<strong>of</strong> all taxable pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> private sector were absorbed by finance sector firms. By comparison<br />

finance sector employment grew less dramatically, moving from 3.9% to 7.2% <strong>of</strong> employment<br />

during <strong>the</strong> same period.<br />

9


The realized pr<strong>of</strong>it time series (which excludes depreciation) shows that <strong>the</strong> finance sec-<br />

tor consistently receives a smaller share <strong>of</strong> total than pre-tax pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy, because<br />

capital depreciation is typically larger in o<strong>the</strong>r (particularly mining, manufacturing <strong>and</strong> transpor-<br />

tation) sectors. The same basic pattern, however, <strong>of</strong> increased pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> financial sector is<br />

still evident, with <strong>the</strong> finance sector retaining 30% <strong>of</strong> all pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> US economy by 2002.<br />

Across <strong>the</strong> time series it is clear that <strong>the</strong> finance sector has become not simply a larger part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

economy but has become more powerful in terms <strong>of</strong> its ability to realize as pr<strong>of</strong>its a growing<br />

share <strong>of</strong> national income.<br />

--Figure 3 about here--<br />

We are also interested in whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> increased income into <strong>the</strong> finance sector led to<br />

higher incomes for employees in <strong>the</strong> sector. The 2009-2010 political outrage over <strong>the</strong> very high<br />

bonuses <strong>of</strong> bank executives <strong>and</strong> Wall Street traders suggest that this may have been <strong>the</strong> case.<br />

Figure 3 displays <strong>the</strong> ratio total employee compensation (including salary, bonuses, <strong>and</strong> benefits)<br />

as a proportion <strong>of</strong> total national compensation over sector employment as a proportion <strong>of</strong> total<br />

national employment. Prior to 1980, employees in this sector on average earned about <strong>the</strong>ir per<br />

capita share <strong>of</strong> employee income. Following three decades <strong>of</strong> stability, subsequent to 1980 em-<br />

ployee compensation in this sector soared, although less steeply after 2000. By 2000 <strong>the</strong> average<br />

compensation in this sector was 60% higher than <strong>the</strong> national average. Because <strong>the</strong> estimates are<br />

at <strong>the</strong> industry-level, <strong>the</strong>se data do not tell us which employees benefited, a question we return to<br />

later in <strong>the</strong> paper.<br />

2. Theoretical Explanation <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> <strong>Rents</strong><br />

10


While we have established that <strong>the</strong> finance sector accumulated an increased share <strong>of</strong> national<br />

production after 1980 we have not established why this happened. A simple account might be<br />

that finance sector productivity soared after 1980. Since productivity is typically defined circu-<br />

larly in terms <strong>of</strong> value realized in markets, this is true by definition. The more interesting ques-<br />

tion is what set <strong>of</strong> changes in <strong>the</strong> rules <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> game allowed this realization <strong>of</strong> income. We look<br />

to rent <strong>the</strong>ory to provide such an explanation.<br />

Sorensen’s (2000; 1996) rent-based model <strong>of</strong> income inequality stresses <strong>the</strong> political me-<br />

chanisms through which actors in markets manipulate supply <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong> to create <strong>and</strong> maintain<br />

monopoly rents (or to destroy o<strong>the</strong>r actors’ monopoly rents). Actors work to create <strong>and</strong> sustain<br />

monopolies <strong>of</strong> one sort or ano<strong>the</strong>r <strong>and</strong> so evade <strong>the</strong> discipline <strong>of</strong> competitive markets. 8 Some-<br />

times <strong>the</strong>se monopolies are short-lived as when a firm produces a new product before competi-<br />

tors enter <strong>the</strong> market. When firms can secure relatively permanent advantage through state sanc-<br />

tioned monopolies or through scale based barriers to entry that allow <strong>the</strong>m to monopolize mar-<br />

kets <strong>the</strong>y can capture rents for long periods. 9 The main contrast between rent <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> conven-<br />

8 While we think it is typically true that actors attempt to sustain rents, as demonstrated in our<br />

later analysis, it can also be <strong>the</strong> case that initial rents occur for reasons <strong>of</strong> chance <strong>and</strong> as unin-<br />

tended consequences <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r actions. There are methodological implications <strong>of</strong> this insight, that<br />

<strong>the</strong> beneficiaries <strong>of</strong> economic rents may not have been <strong>the</strong> actors that put <strong>the</strong>m in place, suggest-<br />

ing that historical analyses <strong>of</strong> institutional creation are needed to identify actors <strong>and</strong> motives.<br />

Post-hoc interpretations <strong>of</strong> actor power based on who benefited we see as a backwards reading <strong>of</strong><br />

history <strong>and</strong> analytically unsatisfying.<br />

9 Although Sorensen takes a perfectly competitive market as a reference, this is primarily a heu-<br />

ristic device. As far as we can tell such markets rarely exist.<br />

11


tional market accounts is that rent <strong>the</strong>ory questions <strong>the</strong> free market assumption that actors are<br />

fairly rewarded according to <strong>the</strong>ir productivity under <strong>the</strong> assumption <strong>of</strong> competitive markets. It<br />

argues that markets are not neutral but subject to political, institutional, <strong>and</strong> ideological competi-<br />

tion <strong>and</strong> dominance.<br />

Sociologists increasingly use some variant <strong>of</strong> rent <strong>the</strong>ory to explain income inequality<br />

dynamics. For example, Weeden (2002) demonstrates that actors organized into occupations that<br />

through state licensing successfully close <strong>of</strong>f access to those occupations (i.e. control labor<br />

supply) receive higher wages. Focusing on change since 1980 in US income inequality Morgan<br />

<strong>and</strong> colleagues document industry linked selective rent destruction to <strong>the</strong> declining fortunes <strong>of</strong><br />

blue collar workers in general <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> white working class in particular (Morgan <strong>and</strong> Tang 2007;<br />

Morgan <strong>and</strong> McKerrow 2004).<br />

We see <strong>the</strong> accumulation <strong>of</strong> both pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>and</strong> higher earnings in <strong>the</strong> finance sector post-<br />

deregulation as reflecting <strong>the</strong> new institutional autonomy granted an increasingly concentrated<br />

industry by <strong>the</strong> neoliberal state. These institutional transformations in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> market regula-<br />

tions <strong>and</strong> expectations have increased <strong>the</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> actors in <strong>the</strong> finance sector to secure econom-<br />

ic rents (Fligstein <strong>and</strong> Goldstein 2010). In addition, <strong>the</strong> deregulation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance industry al-<br />

lowed <strong>the</strong> industry to both create new financial instruments <strong>and</strong> redefine market behavior<br />

(MacKenzie <strong>and</strong> Millo 2003) in an environment in which government regulation <strong>of</strong> new instru-<br />

ments did not occur. In <strong>the</strong> next section we outline <strong>the</strong>se institutional shifts.<br />

Rent <strong>the</strong>ory is explicit in stating where money rents come from. When economic rents are<br />

associated with <strong>the</strong> power <strong>of</strong> firms (or industries) to reduce competition, above market pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

come from <strong>the</strong> consumers who pay higher prices than <strong>the</strong>y o<strong>the</strong>rwise would. Similarly, employ-<br />

ment rents (above market wages to employees) are derived from some combination <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r em-<br />

12


ployees, a lower capital share <strong>of</strong> income, or passing high labor costs on to customers. Such mar-<br />

ket power has been linked to relative power in supplier as well as consumer exchange networks<br />

(Burt 1983), in production (Tomaskovic-Devey et al 2009) or in both (Tomaskovic-Devey <strong>and</strong><br />

Skaggs 1999). O<strong>the</strong>rs have referred to this income distribution process as one <strong>of</strong> exploitation in<br />

which <strong>the</strong> material conditions on one actor are dependent on <strong>the</strong> contributions <strong>of</strong> exchange part-<br />

ners (Roemer 1982; Tilly 1998; Sakamoto <strong>and</strong> Liu 2006).<br />

Rent, market power <strong>and</strong> exploitation approaches all agree that relatively powerful actors<br />

are more likely to receive <strong>and</strong> be able to defend a greater share <strong>of</strong> available income. Convention-<br />

al rent <strong>the</strong>ory takes as a moral baseline that income distributions should reflect <strong>the</strong> value <strong>of</strong> ac-<br />

tors in a perfectly competitive market (Sorenson 2000). O<strong>the</strong>rs are more likely to evaluate <strong>the</strong><br />

distribution <strong>of</strong> income as just when actors’ share <strong>of</strong> contribution to production is realized in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

earnings (e.g. Sakamoto <strong>and</strong> Liu 2006). Roemer (1982), in <strong>the</strong> most radical exploitation formula-<br />

tion, saw <strong>the</strong> just distribution <strong>of</strong> income as when each actor receives <strong>the</strong>ir national per capita<br />

share <strong>of</strong> income. All o<strong>the</strong>r income distributions reflect <strong>the</strong> relative power <strong>of</strong> actors in states, mar-<br />

kets <strong>and</strong> organizations to extract income from o<strong>the</strong>r actors. These moral baselines are clearly<br />

analytic abstractions, unlikely to be observed in <strong>the</strong> real world. To us what matters most <strong>the</strong>oreti-<br />

cally is what <strong>the</strong>y share, which is an underst<strong>and</strong>ing that income is intrinsically associated with<br />

<strong>the</strong> historically contingent relative power <strong>of</strong> actors in both organizations <strong>and</strong> markets, ra<strong>the</strong>r than<br />

simple reflections <strong>of</strong> productivity differences. Regardless <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> baseline model, <strong>the</strong>se approach-<br />

es all share an assumption <strong>of</strong> income distributions as socially negotiated, ra<strong>the</strong>r than natural or<br />

inevitable. Rent destruction or creation is expected to respond to shifts in <strong>the</strong> relative power <strong>of</strong><br />

actors in markets or production to make claims on income flows. In <strong>the</strong> most agentic version this<br />

shift will follow a political process in which organized actors secure <strong>and</strong> protect <strong>the</strong>ir own rents<br />

13


(e.g. Weeden 2002). As presented below, rents may also be produced as a function <strong>of</strong> unintended<br />

dem<strong>and</strong>, institutional or even ideological shifts. Because market actors rely on <strong>the</strong> state to create<br />

or endorse <strong>the</strong> ground rules for market exchange, <strong>the</strong> state is <strong>of</strong>ten an important audience <strong>and</strong><br />

actor in rent creation <strong>and</strong> destruction political processes (Fligstein 2000).<br />

In an application <strong>of</strong> rent <strong>the</strong>ory Morgan (Morgan <strong>and</strong> Tang 2007; Morgan <strong>and</strong> McKerrow<br />

2004) develops an empirical strategy focusing on industry rents, highlighting industries’ shifting<br />

capacities to extract rents from a national market. This approach is broadly consistent with <strong>the</strong><br />

well established economic result that both wages <strong>and</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its tend to rise in industries where one<br />

(monopoly) or few (oligopoly) firms dominate production (Scherer <strong>and</strong> Ross 1990). Sorenson’s<br />

rent model directs scholar’s attention to additional institutional bases <strong>of</strong> market avoidance <strong>and</strong><br />

rent creation such as state licensing (e.g. Weeden 2002) or <strong>the</strong> political manipulation <strong>of</strong> dem<strong>and</strong><br />

or regulatory structures (Fligstein 2000). We will show that both processes – industry concentra-<br />

tion <strong>and</strong> changes in regulatory structure – are important for <strong>the</strong> shift <strong>of</strong> national income into <strong>the</strong><br />

finance sector. Typically, sociological rent <strong>the</strong>ory takes aggregate dem<strong>and</strong> as exogenous to <strong>the</strong><br />

process <strong>of</strong> rent creation. As we will see in <strong>the</strong> financialization story aggregate dem<strong>and</strong> was not<br />

exogenous. The rise <strong>of</strong> institutional investors sharply increased dem<strong>and</strong> for financial services <strong>and</strong><br />

so are clearly part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> historically contingent growth <strong>of</strong> finance sector rents <strong>and</strong> political pow-<br />

er.<br />

Compared to previous applications <strong>of</strong> rent <strong>the</strong>ory we provide a more detailed institutional<br />

analysis <strong>of</strong> changes in market power <strong>and</strong> regulatory structure. Rent shifts have typically been<br />

inferred from shifts in income distributions across industries or occupations. While we follow<br />

this practice we believe that inferences are streng<strong>the</strong>ned by documenting <strong>the</strong> actual shifts in ac-<br />

tors’ constraints <strong>and</strong> behaviors as well. This also allows for a closer examination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> timing <strong>of</strong><br />

14


income dynamics, which should follow <strong>the</strong> institutional shifts we argue are producing <strong>the</strong>m. Be-<br />

cause we disaggregate <strong>the</strong> finance sector into detailed industries we can also observe which ac-<br />

tors during which historical moments realized <strong>the</strong> increased income associated with financializa-<br />

tion.<br />

The rising share <strong>of</strong> national income in <strong>the</strong> finance sector, if it was created by increased<br />

market power linked to deregulation, industry concentration, <strong>and</strong> financial innovation, likely<br />

came at <strong>the</strong> expense <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r actors in <strong>the</strong> economy. In a neoclassical economic model one might<br />

be tempted to claim that financialization, because it might increase <strong>the</strong> efficient allocation <strong>of</strong><br />

capital, might have also increased economic activity overall, <strong>the</strong>reby raising all actors’ income.<br />

However, Stockhammer (2004) <strong>and</strong> Orhangazi (2008) show that <strong>the</strong> actual case was that finan-<br />

cialization reduced non-financial firm’s capital investment in new productive assets <strong>and</strong> saw an<br />

increasing share <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir cash flow diverted to <strong>the</strong> finance sector as increased pr<strong>of</strong>its. Fligstein<br />

<strong>and</strong> Shin (2007) show that, when non-financial firms pursue shareholder value strategies (which<br />

are closely linked to financialization in <strong>the</strong> discussion that follows), <strong>the</strong>y did not actually produce<br />

increased pr<strong>of</strong>itability.<br />

3. The Institutional Roots <strong>of</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong><br />

Market institutions provide both <strong>the</strong> state sanctioned <strong>and</strong> culturally recognized rules <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> game<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> cognitive maps through which actors, including corporations <strong>and</strong> regulators, underst<strong>and</strong><br />

how <strong>the</strong> market works <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir role within it, <strong>the</strong>reby shaping market strategies <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> devel-<br />

opment <strong>of</strong> markets <strong>the</strong>mselves (Fligstein 2000). In this section we provide a historical analysis<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> institutional shifts in <strong>and</strong> around financial markets since 1980s. We start from <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong><br />

Post-War economic boom in <strong>the</strong> 1970s, which was perceived at <strong>the</strong> time not only as a crisis for<br />

15


<strong>the</strong> banking industry but also a crisis <strong>of</strong> U.S. capitalism. It was also perceived as a failure <strong>of</strong><br />

Keynesian macroeconomic policies which provided no clear explanation or solution for <strong>the</strong><br />

"stagflation" <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> time. We document <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> neoliberal policy model <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> solutions pro-<br />

posed to control inflation <strong>and</strong> stimulate <strong>the</strong> finance sector. Lastly, we analyze <strong>the</strong> related devel-<br />

opments in <strong>the</strong> era <strong>of</strong> deregulation to outline <strong>the</strong> systematic reconfiguration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> U.S. economy.<br />

Problems: Stagflation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Crisis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1970s<br />

One can point to <strong>the</strong> era around 1980 as a watershed in <strong>the</strong> orientation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US federal govern-<br />

ment toward <strong>the</strong> economy in general <strong>and</strong> economic regulation in particular. The economic crises<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1970s centered around <strong>the</strong> OPEC inspired rise in oil prices, <strong>the</strong> perceived rise in union <strong>and</strong><br />

consumer power, <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> US manufacturing’s global hegemony, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> birth <strong>of</strong> a low-growth<br />

high-inflation macro-economy. This configuration <strong>of</strong> threats led to <strong>the</strong> mobilization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> large<br />

firm corporate sector to push for economic deregulation, lower taxes, <strong>and</strong> a smaller state (Miller<br />

<strong>and</strong> Tomaskovic-Devey 1983). These shifts were interpreted at <strong>the</strong> time as a crisis <strong>of</strong> US capital-<br />

ism <strong>and</strong> led to <strong>the</strong> mobilization <strong>of</strong> corporate actors to reinvent <strong>the</strong> system (Vogel 1986). Econom-<br />

ic deregulation in particular was <strong>the</strong> goal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> business mobilization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late 1970s (Useem<br />

1983). During this period <strong>of</strong> recapitalization it is clear that <strong>the</strong> largest banks <strong>and</strong> insurance com-<br />

panies were central to large firm leadership networks (Mintz <strong>and</strong> Schwartz 1985).<br />

In <strong>the</strong> financial sector this crisis was initially defined in terms <strong>of</strong> what came to be called<br />

stagflation --<strong>the</strong> joint occurrence <strong>of</strong> slow or no economic growth <strong>and</strong> high inflation. Slow growth<br />

led to fewer outlets for domestic investment. Inflation undermined <strong>the</strong> traditional banking prac-<br />

tice <strong>of</strong> borrowing money from customers <strong>and</strong> lending it to investors. Stagflation led to a sharp<br />

drop in bank pr<strong>of</strong>itability (see <strong>the</strong> late 1970s in Figures 2 <strong>and</strong> 5). In response, <strong>the</strong> Federal Re-<br />

16


serve Bank, led by Paul Voker, fought inflation by rapidly increasing interest rates (Krippner fc,<br />

Epstein <strong>and</strong> Jayadev 2005). This tight monetary policy slowed down inflation in <strong>the</strong> early 1980s<br />

<strong>and</strong> lured foreign capital to invest in US interest bearing bonds. Toge<strong>the</strong>r low inflation <strong>and</strong> high<br />

interest rates created <strong>the</strong> conditions for high real interest rates <strong>and</strong> so high pr<strong>of</strong>its for banks, in-<br />

surance companies <strong>and</strong> any entity extending credit to consumers <strong>and</strong> non-financial corporations<br />

(Epstein <strong>and</strong> Jayadev 2005). While tight monetary policy stabilized <strong>the</strong> income <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance<br />

sector by taming inflation, it was <strong>the</strong> resulting deregulation that fundamentally shifted <strong>the</strong> basic<br />

structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy to favor <strong>the</strong> financial sector. 10<br />

There is now a scholarly consensus that this crisis was followed by a period <strong>of</strong> deregula-<br />

tion <strong>and</strong> emerging neoliberal policies that created <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy. Why<br />

this happened is to some extent disputed. Some authors have assumed that <strong>the</strong> centrality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

finance sector to <strong>the</strong> corporate elite coupled with <strong>the</strong> sector’s clear monetary gains from market<br />

deregulation suggest that deregulation was a result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political efforts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector<br />

(e.g. Crotty 2005). This account would be consistent with <strong>the</strong> agentic-political model <strong>of</strong> rent cre-<br />

ation proposed by Sorenson. O<strong>the</strong>rs point to political entrepreneurs within <strong>the</strong> state itself (Prasad<br />

2006); neoclassical economists as intellectual <strong>and</strong> technical entrepreneurs when traditional Key-<br />

nesian economists, who assumed a stable <strong>and</strong> positive association between inflation <strong>and</strong> econom-<br />

ic growth, failed to explain <strong>the</strong> cause <strong>of</strong> stagflation (Davis 2009; Fourcade-Gourinchas <strong>and</strong> Babb<br />

10 In <strong>the</strong> early 1980s conflicts between an inflation fighting Federal Reserve chief Paul Volker<br />

<strong>and</strong> a deficit spending Ronald Reagan were resolved with a massive influx <strong>of</strong> foreign capital,<br />

particularly from Japan, funding deficits <strong>and</strong> initiating a continuous stream <strong>of</strong> foreign capital to<br />

feed debt based consumption by consumers, corporations, as well as <strong>the</strong> US federal government<br />

(Krippner fc).<br />

17


2002), <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> institutional investors (Davis 2009; Useem 1996), <strong>and</strong> in probably <strong>the</strong> most<br />

careful study <strong>of</strong> financialization as <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> sequential problem solving by state actors with<br />

strong ties to <strong>the</strong> finance sector (Krippner fc). 11 All accounts agree that <strong>the</strong> general neo-liberal<br />

consensus made regulation <strong>of</strong> financial instruments that developed after 1980 unlikely.<br />

Solutions: Finance Sector Deregulation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Rise <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Neoliberal Policy Model<br />

What at that time was merely a business insurgency brought about by declining pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> perceived rising power <strong>of</strong> consumers <strong>and</strong> unions has since become institutionalized as a<br />

new normative neoliberal order in which market solutions to almost any governmental problem<br />

became normative (Prasad 2006; Fourcade-Gourinchas <strong>and</strong> Babb 2002).<br />

Occurring during <strong>the</strong> “stagflation” <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late 1970s, <strong>the</strong> first act in finance sector deregu-<br />

lation came from <strong>the</strong> Supreme Court, which in 1978 ruled in Marquette Nat. Bank <strong>of</strong> Minneapo-<br />

lis v. First <strong>of</strong> Omaha Service Corporation that credit card companies could charge whatever was<br />

<strong>the</strong> allowable interest rate in <strong>the</strong> state in which <strong>the</strong>y were chartered. This lead to most credit card<br />

companies chartering or rechartering in South Dakota or Delaware, states without usury laws<br />

limiting permissible interest rate charges.<br />

In <strong>the</strong> late 1970s consumer movements, trying to protect household savings against infla-<br />

tion, supported interest rate deregulation, breaking a long st<strong>and</strong>ing political stalemate between<br />

different financial sector interests (Krippner fc). Also responding to <strong>the</strong> “stagflation” threat to<br />

11 We do not have evidence to adjudicate between <strong>the</strong>se accounts, although we find Kripner’s<br />

(fc) path dependent political argument <strong>the</strong> most convincing for <strong>the</strong> specific case <strong>of</strong> financializa-<br />

tion.<br />

18


anks pr<strong>of</strong>itability, <strong>the</strong> second <strong>and</strong> probably most pr<strong>of</strong>ound deregulatory action was <strong>the</strong> 1980<br />

Depository Institutions Deregulation <strong>and</strong> Monetary Control Act, in which <strong>the</strong> US Congress re-<br />

pealed a set <strong>of</strong> banking regulations in place since <strong>the</strong> Glass-Steagall Act <strong>of</strong> 1933. The Glass-<br />

Steagall Act was designed after <strong>the</strong> financial crash <strong>of</strong> 1929 to regulate risk in <strong>the</strong> finance sector,<br />

prevent fur<strong>the</strong>r concentration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industry, <strong>and</strong> to prevent investment speculation from causing<br />

a repeat <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Great Depression. Eliminating many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se institutional protections, <strong>the</strong> 1980<br />

act allowed banks to merge, removed regulatory control over interest paid on savings accounts,<br />

allowed credit unions <strong>and</strong> savings <strong>and</strong> loans to <strong>of</strong>fer interest on checking accounts, <strong>and</strong> removed<br />

state usury caps on interest rates charged by financial institutions. As a result <strong>the</strong> act weakened<br />

<strong>the</strong> distinction between mutual funds, commercial banks <strong>and</strong> savings <strong>and</strong> loan firms, leading to a<br />

decline in <strong>the</strong> traditional banking function <strong>of</strong> raising money through deposits <strong>and</strong> loaning money<br />

out for investment purposes. In response to <strong>the</strong> declining pr<strong>of</strong>it opportunities in <strong>the</strong> traditional<br />

deposit-loan cycle, banks turned to fees for financial services as <strong>the</strong> source <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir income<br />

stream, inventing a host <strong>of</strong> new financial instruments to absorb <strong>the</strong> increased investment flow<br />

associated with <strong>the</strong> rise in institutional investors <strong>and</strong> diversion <strong>of</strong> household savings from tradi-<br />

tional savings accounts into financial markets (Davis 2009).<br />

--Figure 4 about here--<br />

In <strong>the</strong> 1980’s <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve allowed bank holding companies to own banks in mul-<br />

tiple states <strong>and</strong> by 1994 in <strong>the</strong> Riegle-Neal “Interstate Banking <strong>and</strong> Branching Act” repealed <strong>the</strong><br />

final prohibition on interstate banking. Figure 4 shows <strong>the</strong> post 1980 concentration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> bank-<br />

ing industry as fewer organizations, now allowed to both merge <strong>and</strong> operate across state lines,<br />

controlled <strong>the</strong> rapidly growing financial assets in <strong>the</strong> economy. During <strong>the</strong> 1980s <strong>and</strong> 1990s both<br />

<strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Securities <strong>and</strong> Exchange Commission pulled back from <strong>the</strong>ir regula-<br />

19


tory role <strong>and</strong> became a cheerleader for new financial instruments allowing new organizational<br />

arrangements in <strong>the</strong> finance industry to flourish without regulatory oversight (Fligstein <strong>and</strong><br />

Goldstein 2010). Even formally illegal cross-industry activity, such as investment, insurance, <strong>and</strong><br />

banking all located in single firm became acceptable, even if still illegal. Eventually, <strong>and</strong> in re-<br />

sponse to an earlier merger <strong>of</strong> Citicorp <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Traveler’s Insurance Company, in <strong>the</strong> Financial<br />

Services Modernization Act <strong>of</strong> 1999 <strong>the</strong> US Congress repealed <strong>the</strong> last regulation on finance<br />

sector behavior from <strong>the</strong> Glass-Steagall Act, now making it legal for investment banks, commer-<br />

cial banks <strong>and</strong> insurance companies to combine operations. This lead to <strong>the</strong> expansion <strong>of</strong> consol-<br />

idated bank holding companies, which operated simultaneously in all financial markets, created<br />

<strong>the</strong> consolidated financial services industry in which family <strong>and</strong> commercial banking, insurance,<br />

<strong>and</strong> investment services could all be provided by a single firm, <strong>and</strong> eventually generated <strong>the</strong> sys-<br />

temic (i.e. concentrated densely networked) risk associated with <strong>the</strong> financial collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> later<br />

2000s. Although <strong>the</strong> key shifts in <strong>the</strong> regulatory field that led to financialization happened in <strong>the</strong><br />

early 1980s, <strong>the</strong> 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act increased <strong>the</strong> concentration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

finance industry <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> centrality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> largest financial institutions to <strong>the</strong> economy. Davis<br />

(2009) documents numerous instances in which <strong>the</strong>se diversified large general financial service<br />

firms were beset by conflicts <strong>of</strong> interest <strong>and</strong> sc<strong>and</strong>als after 2000.<br />

Finally, <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve after decades long experimentation with methods to obscure<br />

<strong>the</strong>ir political role in limiting wage <strong>and</strong> employment growth as it prioritized inflation fighting<br />

over employment or wage growth, finally endorsed a policy <strong>of</strong> letting markets lead policy <strong>and</strong> by<br />

<strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Twentieth Century embraced <strong>the</strong> efficient markets hypo<strong>the</strong>ses which described<br />

financial markets as self regulating. The latter ultimately lead to support from Federal Reserve<br />

<strong>of</strong>ficials <strong>of</strong> bank requests to end <strong>the</strong> prohibition <strong>of</strong> multiple financial services within a single firm.<br />

20


Toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>se shifts in <strong>the</strong> institutional rules reduced regulatory oversight over current <strong>and</strong><br />

emerging investment devices, encouraged financial investment over physical capital investment,<br />

<strong>and</strong> unleashed speculation in financial assets. Because <strong>the</strong>se policies led to increased volatility in<br />

interest rates <strong>and</strong> stock market performance <strong>the</strong>y also encouraged <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> new financial<br />

instruments to shift <strong>and</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>it from risk, ranging from variable rate mortgages, to credit default<br />

swaps, to mortgage based <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r derivative securities (Krippner fc).<br />

Fligstein <strong>and</strong> Goldstein (2010) refer to <strong>the</strong> refusal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve Bank <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Securities <strong>and</strong> Exchange Commission to regulate new financial practices as a form <strong>of</strong> regulatory<br />

capture.<br />

“This disjuncture between <strong>the</strong> regulators' actual role <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir avowed role led to a<br />

type <strong>of</strong> regulatory capture. As <strong>the</strong> activities <strong>of</strong> banks exp<strong>and</strong>ed <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>y invented more<br />

<strong>and</strong> more financial products, bankers were consistently able to convince regulators <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> executive <strong>and</strong> legislative branch <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> government to stay away from regulating<br />

<strong>the</strong> market (Fligstein <strong>and</strong> Goldstein, page 6).”<br />

Institutional Shifts: Rise in Financial Sector <strong>Income</strong> <strong>and</strong> Finance Conception <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Firm<br />

Banking deregulatory happened in t<strong>and</strong>em with <strong>and</strong> encouraged o<strong>the</strong>r institutional shifts.<br />

Prior to 1980 commercial banks in particular had been pressing for deregulation particularly in<br />

<strong>the</strong>ir ability to merge, operate across state lines <strong>and</strong> for interest rate flexibility on both loans <strong>and</strong><br />

savings accounts. This reflected not simply a rejection <strong>of</strong> regulation but attempts to increase<br />

market penetration <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir operations. Declines in domestic investment by US<br />

manufacturing firms coupled with surges in bank deposits associated with <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> capital sur-<br />

pluses in <strong>the</strong> OPEC <strong>and</strong> European countries also led to increased deposits in <strong>the</strong> US banks (To-<br />

21


maskovic-Devey <strong>and</strong> McKinley 1981). The rise <strong>of</strong> institutional investors, both private (e.g.<br />

pension funds) <strong>and</strong> public (e.g. countries running budget surpluses such as Japan in <strong>the</strong> 1980s<br />

<strong>and</strong> China more recently) provided a steady source <strong>of</strong> investment capital to promoted continued<br />

financialization (Orhangazi 2008).<br />

At <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance conception <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> firm as a bundle <strong>of</strong> tradable as-<br />

sets, replaced managerial commitments to investment <strong>and</strong> innovation in specific markets (Fligs-<br />

tein 2001, Davis 2009). This produced a fundamental change in managerial behavior so that<br />

finance oriented managers came to control major corporations <strong>and</strong> short-term planning to in-<br />

crease stock price became <strong>the</strong> primary managerial focus. This shift to a shareholder value con-<br />

ception <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> firm was reinforced by <strong>the</strong> linking <strong>of</strong> top management pay to stock options ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than long term market share, sales, or production based pr<strong>of</strong>it. <strong>Financialization</strong>, <strong>and</strong> particularly<br />

<strong>the</strong> rise in long term real interest rates, also encouraged managers to invest in financial instru-<br />

ments ra<strong>the</strong>r than in production.<br />

The financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy both allowed <strong>and</strong> encouraged financial speculation.<br />

While blaming <strong>the</strong> recent financial crisis simply on speculation (e.g. Schiller 2008) misses <strong>the</strong><br />

facilitating institutional organization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy, <strong>the</strong> post 1980 period is remarkable for a<br />

series <strong>of</strong> financial bubbles driven by speculative herding behavior among investors including <strong>the</strong><br />

early 1980s international debt crisis, <strong>the</strong> real estate bubble <strong>and</strong> savings <strong>and</strong> loan crisis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mid-<br />

1980s, <strong>the</strong> stock market run-up <strong>and</strong> collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late 1980s, <strong>the</strong> dot-com bubble <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late<br />

1990s, <strong>the</strong> hedge fund expansion in <strong>the</strong> late 1990s, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> real estate <strong>and</strong> stock market bubbles<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2000s.<br />

Similarly, financialization has encouraged corporate leaders to switch <strong>the</strong>ir investment<br />

strategies from long to short term <strong>and</strong> from physical to financial investments. The increased fi-<br />

22


nancial engagement <strong>of</strong> non-financial business, <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> shareholder activism <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> develop-<br />

ment <strong>of</strong> a market for corporate control shifted managerial orientations from long-term goals <strong>of</strong><br />

corporate growth to short-term goals <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>itability (Useem 1993, Stockhammer 2004, Davis<br />

2009). This shift made investment in new productive capital less attractive <strong>and</strong> financial invest-<br />

ment more. The expansion <strong>and</strong> velocity <strong>of</strong> stock market activity led to increased volatility in<br />

stock holding from an average length <strong>of</strong> stock ownership <strong>of</strong> five years prior to 1980 to only a<br />

single year by 2002 (Crotty 2005). Thus <strong>the</strong> discipline <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> stock market upon corporate leaders<br />

switched from long (or at least medium) term to short-term performance. Since during <strong>the</strong> same<br />

period CEO pay became tied to stock performance, <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector shifted <strong>the</strong> be-<br />

havior <strong>of</strong> non-financial firms away from long term capital investment into short-term financial<br />

manipulation. Nonfinancial firms increasingly invested in financial instruments instead <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

core businesses, going by one estimate from 28% <strong>of</strong> total investments in financial instruments<br />

before 1980 to fully half by 2000. At <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>the</strong> financial sector was able to absorb an<br />

increasing percentage <strong>of</strong> non-financial corporation’s cash flow, rising from less than 30% <strong>of</strong> cash<br />

flow paid to interest, dividends <strong>and</strong> stock buy backs prior to 1980 to as high as 78% afterward,<br />

with a long term average between 1980 <strong>and</strong> 2000 <strong>of</strong> 54% <strong>of</strong> corporate free cash going to inves-<br />

tors ra<strong>the</strong>r than reinvestment in productive capacity (Davis 2009). Fligstein <strong>and</strong> Shin (2007)<br />

show that when firms pursued shareholder value strategies such as mergers <strong>and</strong> lay<strong>of</strong>fs, <strong>and</strong> in-<br />

vestments in labor saving technology it led to reduced employment particularly <strong>of</strong> unionized<br />

workers, but did not lead to increased pr<strong>of</strong>itability.<br />

Both <strong>the</strong> final elimination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> prohibition <strong>of</strong> cross-industry financial activity <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

accelerating income shifts into <strong>the</strong> sector after 1999 suggest that if anything financialization dee-<br />

pened in <strong>the</strong> 2000s. The stock market collapse early in <strong>the</strong> new century was quickly followed by<br />

23


a real estate bubble fueled by low interest rates <strong>and</strong> rising housing prices. The finance sector fur-<br />

<strong>the</strong>r inflated this bubble through <strong>the</strong> aggressive marketing <strong>of</strong> sub-prime mortgages to feed <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>itable business in mortgage backed securities. 12 In a particularly thorough analysis <strong>of</strong> this set<br />

<strong>of</strong> events Fligstein <strong>and</strong> Goldstein (2010) show that this market was created by a limited set <strong>of</strong><br />

financial institutions participating in all aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> process, with collusion from <strong>the</strong> rating<br />

agencies that valued risky securities as AAA investments <strong>and</strong> a set <strong>of</strong> federal regulators who<br />

deeply believed that financial markets were efficient <strong>and</strong> self-regulating. Their analysis is impor-<br />

tant in revealing <strong>the</strong> actor-network structure that produced <strong>the</strong> unstable financial market that, at<br />

least temporarily, brought <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> financialization to a halt.<br />

--Table 1 about here--<br />

We summarize this institutional account in Table 1. This account demonstrates <strong>the</strong> in-<br />

creased power <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector to structure its market. It also shows that <strong>the</strong> construction <strong>of</strong><br />

rent opportunities involved multiple actors <strong>and</strong> is not simply <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> self-conscious political<br />

influence from <strong>the</strong> finance sector. While finance sector political influence increased across this<br />

period, interaction with o<strong>the</strong>r actors was also critical in generating finance deregulation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

more general financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political economy.<br />

Krippner’s (fc) analysis <strong>of</strong> financialization suggests that policy change came from a se-<br />

ries <strong>of</strong> ad hoc <strong>and</strong> seemingly independent policy moves, all <strong>of</strong> which led to abundant credit <strong>and</strong><br />

relaxed regulation <strong>of</strong> markets. In contrast, rent <strong>the</strong>ory tends to focus on political actions to secure<br />

or stabilize market rents. While <strong>the</strong> finance sector certainly had done <strong>the</strong> latter, Krippner’s ac-<br />

12 Although Figure 2 suggests a retreat in financial sector pr<strong>of</strong>it as a share <strong>of</strong> all pr<strong>of</strong>it after 2003<br />

this primarily reflects a growth in pr<strong>of</strong>its in o<strong>the</strong>r sectors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy. Absolute finance sec-<br />

tor pr<strong>of</strong>its soared <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> sector as a proportion <strong>of</strong> GDP continued to climb through 2006.<br />

24


count suggests a certain happenstance in producing <strong>the</strong> former. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, if we accept<br />

<strong>the</strong> evidence (Useem 1983; Mintz <strong>and</strong> Schwartz 1985) that <strong>the</strong> finance sector was central to both<br />

<strong>the</strong> original political mobilization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> capitalist class <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir internal power structure than<br />

Krippner’s account might be tempered by a recognition that if <strong>the</strong> path <strong>of</strong> deregulation had not<br />

developed in a way that seemed at <strong>the</strong> time to be conducive to finance sector perceived interests<br />

one would imagine a more active resistance.<br />

This account also suggests that institutional investors, both domestic <strong>and</strong> international,<br />

played a role by creating increased dem<strong>and</strong> for financial investments. Conventional sociological<br />

rent <strong>the</strong>ory treats dem<strong>and</strong> as a constant. Thus while <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> market power derived from indus-<br />

try concentration <strong>and</strong> political power to repeal, define <strong>and</strong> elude regulation are clearly important<br />

in this case, <strong>the</strong> dem<strong>and</strong> for financial service <strong>and</strong> speculative returns from institutional investors<br />

certainly mattered as well. Of course, <strong>the</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> regulatory structure made <strong>the</strong>se investments<br />

more attractive <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> financial speculation <strong>and</strong> innovation created a self-fulfilling cycle<br />

<strong>of</strong> high expected returns leading to new institutional <strong>and</strong> eventually household investments in<br />

financial assets. One can over tell <strong>the</strong> dem<strong>and</strong> story, <strong>of</strong> course. In <strong>the</strong> absence <strong>of</strong> recurrent finan-<br />

cial bubbles, investors may have turned to invest in productive, ra<strong>the</strong>r than financial, assets. In<br />

<strong>the</strong> next section we turn to our analyses <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> income rents accruing to <strong>the</strong> finance sector as a<br />

result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se institutional transformations.<br />

4. The Distribution Consequences <strong>of</strong> Finance Sector <strong>Rents</strong><br />

We now turn to <strong>the</strong> distributional consequences <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> transfers <strong>of</strong> income rents into <strong>the</strong> finance<br />

sector. The analysis will contrast three periods with distinct institutional implications for rent<br />

accumulation: <strong>the</strong> regulatory period (1940-1980); <strong>the</strong> deregulation period (1980-1999), <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

post-2000 consolidation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> bank holding company, <strong>the</strong> real estate bubble, <strong>and</strong> innovations in<br />

25


derivative markets most famously mortgage backed securities. We proceed first by documenting<br />

industry specific trends in <strong>the</strong> share <strong>of</strong> capital pr<strong>of</strong>it into <strong>the</strong> financial sector. Following rent<br />

<strong>the</strong>ory, our expectation is that actors who are relatively more powerful in market exchange, or in<br />

<strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> employees within organizations in <strong>the</strong> finance sector, will accumulate increasing<br />

shares <strong>of</strong> national income. 13<br />

--Figure 5 about here--<br />

Figure 5 disaggregates pr<strong>of</strong>its by detailed industry. Consistent with our institutional ac-<br />

count, before 1980 finance sector pr<strong>of</strong>its as a percentage <strong>of</strong> all pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy were ei<strong>the</strong>r<br />

stable (security, insurance, <strong>and</strong> real estate) or slowly growing (banking). Banking pr<strong>of</strong>its drop<br />

sharply during <strong>the</strong> high inflation period at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1970s precipitating <strong>the</strong> 1980 Depository<br />

Institutions Deregulation <strong>and</strong> Monetary Control Act. Consistently, after 1980 it is banks <strong>and</strong> later<br />

bank holding companies that reaped <strong>the</strong> most <strong>and</strong> longest term increased pr<strong>of</strong>its from this <strong>and</strong><br />

later acts that repealed various provisions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. Again, in response to<br />

falling bank pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> early 1990s two fur<strong>the</strong>r banking deregulation acts were passed -- <strong>the</strong><br />

1994 Riegle-Neal “Interstate Banking <strong>and</strong> Branching Act <strong>and</strong> 1999 Financial Services Moderni-<br />

zation Act. After 1999 we see a second <strong>and</strong> even steeper surge in <strong>the</strong> proportion <strong>of</strong> national pr<strong>of</strong>-<br />

its accumulated by banks <strong>and</strong> bank holding companies.<br />

13 Here we focus on income shifts into <strong>the</strong> financial sector during <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> financialization.<br />

This implies that actors elsewhere in <strong>the</strong> economy realized income losses. It also suggests that<br />

increasing national income inequality during this period may have been influenced by <strong>the</strong> shift <strong>of</strong><br />

income into <strong>the</strong> finance sector. We do not examine <strong>the</strong>se potentially important income shifts in<br />

this paper but are working toward that goal in our current work.<br />

26


The o<strong>the</strong>r finance sector industries also show pr<strong>of</strong>it gains but <strong>the</strong>y happen later <strong>and</strong> are<br />

less dramatic. The insurance industry realized strong gains across <strong>the</strong> 1980s, declines across <strong>the</strong><br />

1990s <strong>and</strong> more strong gains after 2000. Using 1980 as a baseline bank pr<strong>of</strong>its as a proportion <strong>of</strong><br />

all pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy grew 300-400% over <strong>the</strong> next thirty-eight years. During <strong>the</strong> same pe-<br />

riod insurance pr<strong>of</strong>its as a proportion <strong>of</strong> all pr<strong>of</strong>its grew by slightly less than 100%. Real Estate<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its grew strongly after 1990, but by 2008 were a smaller proportion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> total than <strong>the</strong>y had<br />

been in 1970. Securities, Commodities <strong>and</strong> Investments, <strong>the</strong> industry <strong>of</strong> investment banks, hedge<br />

funds <strong>and</strong> mutual funds, shows great year to year fluctuations in pr<strong>of</strong>itability <strong>and</strong> a sustained<br />

boom as a proportion <strong>of</strong> national pr<strong>of</strong>its only after 2000. The most recent bubble was clearly<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>itable for this industry. Most striking is that <strong>the</strong> long term trend prior to 1994 was low, no or<br />

negative pr<strong>of</strong>its in this Securities, Commodities <strong>and</strong> Investments industry. The deregulation <strong>of</strong><br />

banking <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy seem to have been most influential in inflating<br />

banking sector pr<strong>of</strong>its after 1980, with weaker gains in insurance, <strong>and</strong> in <strong>the</strong> security industry<br />

only after <strong>the</strong> 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act which allowed insurance, investment<br />

banks <strong>and</strong> commercial banks to provide <strong>the</strong> same services in one firm.<br />

--Figure 6 about here--<br />

In Figure 6 we disaggregate <strong>the</strong> employee share <strong>of</strong> increased income in <strong>the</strong> finance sector<br />

by industry. Again, employee income as a share <strong>of</strong> national income is remarkably stable prior to<br />

1980. After1980 employees in all four finance sector industries experience earnings growth. The<br />

growth in employee income in <strong>the</strong> Securities, Commodities <strong>and</strong> Investment industry is extraordi-<br />

nary. Total compensation goes from 1.5 <strong>of</strong> its per capita national share to a remarkable 4 times<br />

27


its per capita share. 14 The financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy reflected <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> institutional inves-<br />

tors, rapid turnover in stock <strong>and</strong> commodity markets <strong>and</strong> a generally intensification <strong>of</strong> finance<br />

related activities. It is <strong>the</strong> commission based employees in this industry who reaped great earn-<br />

ings benefits from <strong>the</strong> increased volume <strong>and</strong> velocity <strong>of</strong> investment activity. Since we saw in<br />

Figure 5 that this same industry had weak pr<strong>of</strong>it gains, <strong>and</strong> those gains did not commence until<br />

after 1999 it leads to <strong>the</strong> conclusion that financialization at least before 1999, primarily benefited<br />

<strong>the</strong> employees, ra<strong>the</strong>r than owners, in <strong>the</strong> security industry. This result is in contrast with banking<br />

<strong>and</strong> insurance in which employees made only small gains in total compensation after 1980 <strong>and</strong><br />

those gains tended to flatten after 2000 even as absolute pr<strong>of</strong>its accelerated. Real estate compen-<br />

sation on average is flat <strong>and</strong> near <strong>the</strong> national average across all years. 15<br />

Taken toge<strong>the</strong>r Figures 5 <strong>and</strong> 6 suggest that income rents associated with financialization<br />

were realized primarily by capital in <strong>the</strong> banking, insurance <strong>and</strong> real estate industries <strong>and</strong> by em-<br />

ployees in <strong>the</strong> securities industry. Banking, in particular, seems to have pr<strong>of</strong>ited most consistent-<br />

ly from <strong>the</strong> deregulation <strong>of</strong> financial markets <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> resulting ability to collect economic rents<br />

14 Analyzing first quarter wage date (in order to capture bonus payments) for <strong>the</strong> investment<br />

banking <strong>and</strong> securities industry, Sum et al (2008) report that in 2007 that workers employed in<br />

this industry earned $6,891 per week nationally, $16,918 per week if employed in Manhattan.<br />

The average worker nationwide earned $884. Between 2006 <strong>and</strong> 2007, just prior to <strong>the</strong> collapse<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial system, first-quarter wages in <strong>the</strong> securities <strong>and</strong> commodities industry grew a<br />

remarkable 16.4% nationwide <strong>and</strong> 21.5% in Manhattan.<br />

15 Of course, small gains at <strong>the</strong> industry level can mask large inequalities within industry. The<br />

separate identification <strong>of</strong> bank holding companies after 1999 clearly shows a much higher aver-<br />

age income in <strong>the</strong>se mixed banking-security-insurance hybrids than in conventional banking.<br />

28


from <strong>the</strong> society overall. The employees <strong>of</strong> security <strong>and</strong> commodity firms, which were histori-<br />

cally organized as partnerships, were able to capture windfall compensation from <strong>the</strong> increasing<br />

flow <strong>of</strong> investment activity.<br />

To fur<strong>the</strong>r explore <strong>the</strong> distribution <strong>of</strong> income within <strong>the</strong> finance sector we turn to data on<br />

individuals from <strong>the</strong> Current Population Survey. These data are self-reports <strong>and</strong> include top-<br />

codes for salaries, thus truncating <strong>the</strong> really high compensation reported by Rauh <strong>and</strong> Kaplan<br />

(2007) <strong>and</strong> widely in <strong>the</strong> press during <strong>and</strong> after <strong>the</strong> financial crisis. 16 Figure 7 reports <strong>the</strong> simple<br />

trends in annual earnings for employees <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> various finance sector industries. 17 The basic<br />

trends we saw in Figure 6 are repeated <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> basic ratios are about <strong>the</strong> same for Banks, Insur-<br />

ance <strong>and</strong> Real Estate. The clear exception is in Securities, Commodities <strong>and</strong> Investment, where<br />

salaries while still rising much faster than in <strong>the</strong> non-financial economy, climbing from 1.5 to 3<br />

times <strong>the</strong> national average, ra<strong>the</strong>r than soaring from 1.5 to 4 (as in Figure 6 <strong>and</strong> including all<br />

compensation). Reflecting both sampling <strong>and</strong> earnings top-codes, <strong>the</strong> CPS estimates are least<br />

accurate for capturing <strong>the</strong> wage rents accrued by <strong>the</strong> very high earners in <strong>the</strong> Securities, Com-<br />

16 In <strong>the</strong> financial sector <strong>the</strong>re are many more incidents <strong>of</strong> top-coding: in Banking, <strong>the</strong>re are on<br />

average twice as many top-coded observations as in non-finance industries, in Insurance <strong>the</strong>re<br />

are on average 2.4 as many top-coded observations, whereas in O<strong>the</strong>r Finance Industries <strong>the</strong>re<br />

are on average 13 times as many top-coded observations (Phillippon <strong>and</strong> Rashef 2007).<br />

17 Annual earnings reported here are adjusted into 2000 dollars by Consumer Price Index. Fol-<br />

lowing Philippon <strong>and</strong> Reshef (2009:37), we multiply top-coded incomes in all survey years until<br />

1995 by a factor <strong>of</strong> 1.75 to adjust <strong>the</strong> underestimation <strong>of</strong> relative earnings in <strong>the</strong> financial sector.<br />

After 1995 <strong>the</strong> CPS use group means within top-code categories to impute a top-code value.<br />

29


modities <strong>and</strong> Investment industry. It is <strong>the</strong>se individuals that Rauh <strong>and</strong> Kaplan (2007) show are<br />

increasingly in <strong>the</strong> top one-tenth <strong>of</strong> one percent <strong>of</strong> earners nationally.<br />

--Figure 7 about here--<br />

Using similar data, Philippon <strong>and</strong> Reshef (2009) suggest that up-grades in <strong>the</strong> education<br />

level <strong>of</strong> employees <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> skill mix <strong>of</strong> jobs may account for at least some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rising incomes<br />

in this sector. This is an argument that <strong>the</strong> sector became more skilled, ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong>re was an<br />

increase in income rents to <strong>the</strong> average employee in <strong>the</strong> sector. 18 Appendix B reports shifts in<br />

sector <strong>and</strong> industry employee education <strong>and</strong> occupational structure. The proportion college edu-<br />

cated grew faster than in <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy in banking <strong>and</strong> securities, but not in real estate<br />

or insurance. Similarly, it is in <strong>the</strong> banking <strong>and</strong> security industries in which we see an upgrading<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> occupational structure during this period.<br />

Figure 8 reports predicted sector specific annual income trends based on a regression<br />

model that adjusts for shifts in employee experience (age), education, sex, race <strong>and</strong> hours <strong>of</strong><br />

work as well as in occupational structure over <strong>the</strong> time period. 19 The same basic pattern <strong>of</strong> rising<br />

average employment income is evident for each industry in Figure 8, although <strong>the</strong> peaks are not<br />

18 Of course, in both relative power <strong>and</strong> exploitation approaches, skill or occupational power are<br />

bases for rent extraction within organizations. Many popular commentators have seen skilled<br />

workers flocking to this sector because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> high incomes, ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> high income being<br />

produced by <strong>the</strong> skilled actors. Both Crotty (2009) <strong>and</strong> Roth (2004) suggest that <strong>the</strong> investment<br />

firms in particular select on <strong>the</strong> bases <strong>of</strong> social similarity with existing traders, ra<strong>the</strong>r than skill.<br />

19 The basic regression model is estimated in OLS separately for each year <strong>and</strong> takes <strong>the</strong> follow-<br />

ing conventional form: Annual Earnings = b0 + b1 Education + b2Age + b3Sex + b4Race +<br />

b5Annual Hours <strong>of</strong> Work + b6-8 Occupation Groups + b9 Finance Industry + e.<br />

30


as dramatic. In <strong>the</strong> Security industry rents rise to about 2.25 times <strong>the</strong> national average, ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than 3 in Figure 7. For <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r three finance sector industries rents rise as well, to 1.17 for real<br />

estate <strong>and</strong> 1.35 for insurance <strong>and</strong> banking. Controlling for compositional shifts explains little <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> rise in bank <strong>and</strong> insurance earnings <strong>and</strong> none <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rise in real estate. Although <strong>the</strong> security<br />

industry sees strong gains in proportion college educated <strong>and</strong> in <strong>the</strong> share <strong>of</strong> high-skilled occupa-<br />

tions our models do not isolate causal order. It is entirely possible, <strong>and</strong> we think likely, that both<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se shifts were a response to increased industry income rent opportunities ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong><br />

increased income being caused by shifts in <strong>the</strong> education level <strong>of</strong> employees or <strong>the</strong> occupational<br />

structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industry.<br />

--Figure 8 about here--<br />

Phillipon <strong>and</strong> Reshef (2009) show that after 1980 <strong>the</strong> returns to college degrees grew<br />

faster in <strong>the</strong> finance sector than in <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy. They also suggest but do not demon-<br />

strate that occupational shifts may have produced an upgrading <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> skill base <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance<br />

sector labor forces. It was certainly <strong>the</strong> case that <strong>the</strong> rising wages in this sector attracted high<br />

performing students from elite colleges but it seems unlikely to us that productivity associated<br />

with individual talent, ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> institutional changes we have outlined, produced <strong>the</strong> gigan-<br />

tic growth in pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>and</strong> earnings in this sector. Oyer (2008) provides evidence consistent with<br />

this intuition, finding that investment bankers are largely “made” on Wall Street ra<strong>the</strong>r than bring<br />

some set <strong>of</strong> a priori superior skills to work. Similarly, Roth (2004) finds that <strong>the</strong> principle selec-<br />

tion mechanism for Wall Street firms is not productivity difference but social backgrounds.<br />

To fur<strong>the</strong>r examine <strong>the</strong> income distribution within each industry, we extend our regres-<br />

sion models to explore education, occupation, sex <strong>and</strong> race specific trends in economic rents for<br />

employees in <strong>the</strong> finance sector. What we find is that <strong>the</strong> substantial increase in income rents to<br />

31


finance sector employees were not extended to all employees. In all four finance sector industries<br />

<strong>the</strong> post-1980 rise in industry rents went primarily to highly educated employees in managerial,<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>essional <strong>and</strong> sales occupations. There were limited or no income benefits to lower level oc-<br />

cupations <strong>and</strong> less educated workers. In addition, for each industry white men see income growth<br />

beyond <strong>the</strong>ir human capital <strong>and</strong> occupational positions in all four industries after 1980, while<br />

minority men <strong>and</strong> women <strong>and</strong> white women display flat income trajectories (analyses available<br />

upon request). Thus compared to national trends in income inequality (e.g. Morgan <strong>and</strong> McKer-<br />

row 2004) <strong>the</strong> finance sector is unusual in that <strong>the</strong>re are increased earnings rents to white men,<br />

even net <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir privileged occupational position.<br />

In order to gauge <strong>the</strong> aggregate income rents transferred to <strong>the</strong> finance sector during <strong>the</strong><br />

period <strong>of</strong> financialization we explored a counterfactual analysis in which we ask what would<br />

current pr<strong>of</strong>it <strong>and</strong> compensation levels in <strong>the</strong> finance sector look like if <strong>the</strong>ir income claims <strong>and</strong><br />

employment as a proportion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> national economy had stayed at <strong>the</strong> 1948-1980 historical le-<br />

vels? 20 We approach <strong>the</strong>se estimates with two simple counterfactuals, both <strong>of</strong> which ask what if<br />

<strong>the</strong> regulatory institutional shifts in <strong>the</strong> finance field associated with increased concentration,<br />

20 One can, <strong>of</strong> course, imagine much more elaborate counterfactuals. For example, if we assumed<br />

that financialization reduced real economic growth by diverting capital investment out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> real<br />

economy, than we might want to estimate how much income was lost by <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy<br />

because <strong>of</strong> financialization. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, some might argue that financialization attracted<br />

foreign investment to <strong>the</strong> US which o<strong>the</strong>rwise would have gone elsewhere thus increasing aggre-<br />

gate income beyond what would have happened in its absence. We suspect that <strong>the</strong> truth lies<br />

closer to <strong>the</strong> former than <strong>the</strong> latter, but do not have any sound basis upon which to derive plausi-<br />

ble alternative GDP growth rates.<br />

32


egulatory relaxation <strong>and</strong> a general belief by all actors that finance markets were smart <strong>and</strong> self-<br />

regulating had not happened? To do this we simply assume that <strong>the</strong> compensation per employee,<br />

employees as a share <strong>of</strong> total employment, <strong>and</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>it shares in <strong>the</strong> economy stayed at pre-1980<br />

levels. In <strong>the</strong> first counterfactual we ask what if <strong>the</strong> longer term average income shares between<br />

1948 <strong>and</strong> 1980 had prevailed after 1980. In <strong>the</strong> second we estimate a linear trend from 1948 to<br />

1980 <strong>and</strong> use that trend to predict post-1980 expected income. Because compensation trends<br />

were so stable prior to 1980 <strong>the</strong>re is little difference between <strong>the</strong> two estimates. Because <strong>the</strong>re<br />

was already an upward slope to financial pr<strong>of</strong>its as a proportion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy before 1980, <strong>the</strong><br />

trend counterfactual produces a somewhat smaller estimate <strong>of</strong> net pr<strong>of</strong>it flow into <strong>the</strong> industry as<br />

a result <strong>of</strong> financialization. Since <strong>the</strong> trends both before <strong>and</strong> after 1980 are different for each in-<br />

dustry we estimate <strong>the</strong> counterfactuals separately for each industry <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>n sum to <strong>the</strong> sector<br />

level. 21<br />

--Table 2 about here--<br />

Table 2 displays estimates <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> net additional income captured in <strong>the</strong> finance sector as<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>and</strong> employee compensation since 1980. Our estimate is that financialization transferred<br />

somewhere between $4.5 <strong>and</strong> $5.1 trillion dollars in income into <strong>the</strong> finance sector between 1980<br />

<strong>and</strong> 2008. The lion share, about 65%, <strong>of</strong> this increased income was earned by banks <strong>and</strong> bank<br />

holding companies <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> that money up to 90% as bank pr<strong>of</strong>its. Although compensation rose<br />

21 The compensation estimates in Table 1 include Holding Company income in <strong>the</strong> finance sector<br />

after 1998. This corresponds to shifts from SIC to NAICS coding <strong>and</strong> our visual inspection <strong>of</strong><br />

shifts in income during <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> overlap in <strong>the</strong> two systems suggest most income was in fact<br />

earned in <strong>the</strong> finance sector. If not included compensation estimates would be only $34 million<br />

lower over <strong>the</strong> entire period.<br />

33


dramatically in real dollars per person, <strong>the</strong> aggregate transfer <strong>of</strong> income to employees was small<br />

compared to <strong>the</strong> surge in finance sector pr<strong>of</strong>its over <strong>the</strong> period. Importantly, <strong>and</strong> consistent with<br />

<strong>the</strong> institutional story much <strong>of</strong> this income transfer happened after 2000. About half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> $4.5-<br />

5.1 trillion surge in pr<strong>of</strong>its happened after 2000. The comparable figure for compensation is<br />

54.5%.<br />

5. Conclusion<br />

We have provided evidence that following <strong>the</strong> institutional shifts in finance sector regulation <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> resulting financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy <strong>and</strong> market concentration into fewer more powerful<br />

firms <strong>the</strong>re has been a surge in income –both as pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>and</strong> earnings- into <strong>the</strong> financial sector. By<br />

2008 almost a quarter <strong>of</strong> GDP <strong>and</strong> more than a quarter <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its accumulated in <strong>the</strong> finance sec-<br />

tor. Employee compensation went from being about average for <strong>the</strong> economy overall, to about<br />

60% higher than <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy. These shifts represent a transfer <strong>of</strong> between $4.5 <strong>and</strong><br />

$5.1 trillion dollars in income into <strong>the</strong> finance sector, mostly as pr<strong>of</strong>its. To put this in perspective<br />

5.1 trillion dollars were about 13% <strong>of</strong> all increased income (pr<strong>of</strong>its + compensation) in <strong>the</strong> pri-<br />

vate sector between 1980 <strong>and</strong> 2008. Or in terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> short term cost <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial collapse,<br />

five point one trillion dollars is more than twice <strong>the</strong> size <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> IMF’s estimate <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> global as-<br />

sets lost when <strong>the</strong> US sub-prime real estate bubble burst (Lewis 2010).<br />

Of course, actors in <strong>the</strong> finance sector would probably interpret this as income earned ra-<br />

<strong>the</strong>r than income transferred. From <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> rent <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>the</strong>re has clearly been a shift in<br />

<strong>the</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se actors to accumulate a larger share <strong>of</strong> national income. This happened as<br />

market competition <strong>and</strong> regulation decreased, providing <strong>the</strong> institutional <strong>and</strong> market power for<br />

this transfer <strong>of</strong> income to occur. It is no doubt <strong>the</strong> case that <strong>the</strong> transfer <strong>of</strong> income would not have<br />

34


occurred if finance sector actors had failed to take advantage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir increased market power, so<br />

<strong>the</strong>re was clearly considerable invention on <strong>the</strong>ir part to produce <strong>the</strong> surge in earnings. From <strong>the</strong><br />

point <strong>of</strong> view <strong>of</strong> actors within <strong>the</strong>se firms this would have looked like a surge in individual <strong>and</strong><br />

collective productivity. But, <strong>of</strong> course, we can all tell stories that explain our market successes<br />

in terms <strong>of</strong> our individual talent.<br />

When we disaggregate by detailed industry we find that <strong>the</strong> lion share <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its flow-<br />

ing into <strong>the</strong> financial sector went to <strong>the</strong> banking industry. This surge began immediately after <strong>the</strong><br />

1980 deregulation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industry <strong>and</strong> continued into <strong>the</strong> current century, peaking at 21% <strong>of</strong> all<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy in 2003. The o<strong>the</strong>r industries saw growth in pr<strong>of</strong>its later - insurance after<br />

1985, real estate after 1991, <strong>and</strong> securities after 2000. From <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> capital, it was<br />

banks <strong>and</strong> bank holding companies <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir owners that prospered from <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> US economy. For <strong>the</strong> securities <strong>and</strong> real estate industries it is not clear that <strong>the</strong>ir surges in<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>it should be interpreted in terms <strong>of</strong> financialization. In both cases <strong>the</strong>y follow financial in-<br />

vestment bubbles, ra<strong>the</strong>r than precede <strong>the</strong>m, <strong>and</strong> do not have <strong>the</strong> long term stable character <strong>of</strong><br />

what has happened in banking (<strong>and</strong> among bank holding companies after 1999).<br />

We also explored <strong>the</strong> extent to which employees in <strong>the</strong> finance sector benefited from <strong>the</strong><br />

increased industry rents tied to financialization. In general <strong>the</strong> result is that many employees did<br />

potentially benefit from increased industry rents. Employment in <strong>the</strong> sector doubled. White men<br />

<strong>and</strong> those with college educations prospered. Managerial, pr<strong>of</strong>essional <strong>and</strong> sales occupations, <strong>the</strong><br />

majority <strong>of</strong> all employees in each industry, saw strong earnings gains. 22 Since this happened<br />

across <strong>the</strong> same period that saw increased earnings inequality across <strong>the</strong> economy, tied in partic-<br />

22 In securities 82% <strong>of</strong> employees are managers, pr<strong>of</strong>essional, or sales. The comparable figures<br />

for banking, insurance, <strong>and</strong> real estate are 53%, 70% <strong>and</strong> 62% <strong>of</strong> all employees.<br />

35


ular to higher education <strong>and</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional/managerial status, <strong>the</strong> fact that earnings trajectories<br />

were even steeper in <strong>the</strong> finance sector is good evidence that this was not simply a secular trend,<br />

but an industry rent sharing with high status/power employees in <strong>the</strong> finance sector.<br />

The Security, Commodity <strong>and</strong> Investment industry st<strong>and</strong>s out in terms <strong>of</strong> employee earn-<br />

ings, with substantially above market income earned by managers, pr<strong>of</strong>essionals <strong>and</strong> sales occu-<br />

pations. Since <strong>the</strong>se estimates <strong>of</strong> earning returns utilize <strong>the</strong> CPS <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> CPS does not capture <strong>the</strong><br />

very highest earnings (because <strong>of</strong> both top coding <strong>and</strong> sampling), we are no doubt underestimat-<br />

ing <strong>the</strong> economic rents going to <strong>the</strong> highest earners. A comparison <strong>of</strong> Figures 6 <strong>and</strong> 7 makes<br />

clear that it is in <strong>the</strong> security industry that we are most grossly underestimating total income to<br />

<strong>the</strong> highest earners. Using <strong>the</strong> NIPA data, which includes all compensation, by 2008 <strong>the</strong> security<br />

industry was paying its average worker four times <strong>the</strong> national average (Figure 6). Since our ana-<br />

lyses suggest that <strong>the</strong> income gains are concentrated in <strong>the</strong> most powerful occupations in this<br />

sector it is clear we are grossly underestimating <strong>the</strong> employment rents accumulated by powerful<br />

employees in <strong>the</strong> securities industry. Our disaggregated estimates suggest that between 1980 <strong>and</strong><br />

2008 <strong>the</strong>re were no aggregate pr<strong>of</strong>it rents in <strong>the</strong> securities industry, while compensation surged.<br />

Even after 2000 when we detect pr<strong>of</strong>it based rents in this sector 88% <strong>of</strong> income rents still ac-<br />

crued to employees. For <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r three industries <strong>the</strong> CPS <strong>and</strong> NIPA estimates in Figures 6 <strong>and</strong><br />

7 are clearly much more similar. Here we can conclude that managers, pr<strong>of</strong>essionals <strong>and</strong> sales<br />

workers pr<strong>of</strong>ited from <strong>the</strong> surge in industry pr<strong>of</strong>its, even if <strong>the</strong>ir earnings were considerably more<br />

modest than those <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir colleagues on Wall Street.<br />

The evidence presented in this paper suggests that <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy<br />

documented by Krippner (2005; fc) <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs prior to 2001 accelerated through 2008. After<br />

2001 <strong>the</strong> concentration <strong>of</strong> GDP in <strong>the</strong> finance sector continued through 2008. The concentration<br />

36


<strong>of</strong> total national pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> finance sector reached a recent peak in 2003, although absolute<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>itability continued to climb until 2006 when <strong>the</strong> real estate market began to fail.<br />

We disaggregate <strong>the</strong>se income gains within <strong>the</strong> finance sector by detailed industry, be-<br />

tween labor <strong>and</strong> capital, <strong>and</strong> among classes <strong>of</strong> employees. Here we have a series <strong>of</strong> key findings.<br />

First, <strong>the</strong> lion share <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>it growth in this industry went to <strong>the</strong> banking industry, including<br />

<strong>the</strong> bank holding companies created after <strong>the</strong> 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act. It was<br />

<strong>the</strong>se bank holding companies (plus <strong>the</strong> insurers AIG, Fannie Mae, <strong>and</strong> Freddie Mac, as well as<br />

GM <strong>and</strong> Chrysler) that were <strong>the</strong> major beneficiaries <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2008-2009 federal bailout <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> col-<br />

lapsing financial system. Thus, <strong>the</strong> bailout <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial system, no matter how important it<br />

was to preserve <strong>the</strong> world financial system, saved a set <strong>of</strong> firms that had since 1980 increasingly<br />

been accumulating <strong>the</strong> economic surplus <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> entire economy. After 1990 <strong>the</strong> banks consistent-<br />

ly controlled more than 15% <strong>of</strong> total pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> economy, rising to more than 20% after 2000.<br />

Prior to being bailed out <strong>the</strong>y had already extracted between around 3.8 trillion dollars in extra<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its, at least relative to <strong>the</strong>ir post-WWII historical norm.<br />

We intend that this paper makes a contribution to rent <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> stratification analyses<br />

more generally. These literatures have tended to observe income dynamics <strong>and</strong> infer <strong>the</strong><br />

processes that generated <strong>the</strong>m. By outlining <strong>the</strong> institutional transformations that made industry<br />

rents in <strong>the</strong> finance sector possible we have tried to make visible <strong>the</strong> political <strong>and</strong> market me-<br />

chanisms producing <strong>and</strong> distributing <strong>the</strong> increased national incomes realized in this sector. By<br />

disaggregating by detailed industry, between capital <strong>and</strong> labor, <strong>and</strong> among classes <strong>of</strong> labor we<br />

have also contributed to a multi-actor view <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rent creation <strong>and</strong> distribution process. We think<br />

that our approach is methodologically useful in that it helps establish empirically when we ex-<br />

pect shifts in income to follow institutional transformations. The basic finding that it is in <strong>the</strong><br />

37


anking industry that we see longer term shifts in both pr<strong>of</strong>its following <strong>the</strong> 1980 deregulation <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> industry <strong>and</strong> that pr<strong>of</strong>it accumulation accelerated after <strong>the</strong> final 1999 elimination <strong>of</strong> bans on<br />

multiple product finance activity we believe substantially streng<strong>the</strong>ns <strong>the</strong> inference that <strong>the</strong> ob-<br />

served rent process is driven by deregulation produced financialization. The insurance <strong>and</strong> real<br />

estate industries show <strong>the</strong> same basic patterns but <strong>the</strong>y are nei<strong>the</strong>r as strong nor as sustained.<br />

The security, commodity <strong>and</strong> investment industry st<strong>and</strong>s out for being a case <strong>of</strong> employee, ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than employer, driven rent extraction.<br />

We think that rent <strong>the</strong>ory is more plausible when <strong>the</strong> evidence includes accounts <strong>of</strong> actual<br />

institutional practices <strong>and</strong> political adjustments <strong>of</strong> market rules that produce (or destroy) income<br />

rents. The introduction <strong>of</strong> an institutional account is we think a useful contribution to market <strong>and</strong><br />

political power based explanations <strong>of</strong> rent, since <strong>the</strong> actual bases <strong>of</strong> power are revealed ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than assumed. In presenting this institutional account we think we have discovered ano<strong>the</strong>r mod-<br />

ification to rent <strong>the</strong>ory, which we think <strong>of</strong> as a multi-actor path dependent alternative to simple<br />

power stories. Because rent <strong>the</strong>ory has typically not observed <strong>the</strong> institutional process, it has<br />

been able to tell a simple single actor market power story such as banks control <strong>the</strong> government<br />

(Crotty 2009). What we observe is a more complex path dependent process, in which low bank<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>its in <strong>the</strong> high inflation 1970s coupled with consumer dem<strong>and</strong>s for higher interest rates led to<br />

<strong>the</strong> initial deregulation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industry. In <strong>the</strong> 1980s <strong>and</strong> 1990s <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> institutional investors<br />

fueled financial innovation in <strong>the</strong> deregulated industry. The 1999 repeal <strong>of</strong> Glass-Steagall con-<br />

straints on finance sector service coupling led to <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> giant multi-service bank<br />

holding companies that dominate US financial markets <strong>of</strong> all types. By <strong>the</strong> 2000s <strong>the</strong> search for<br />

ever exp<strong>and</strong>ing pr<strong>of</strong>its generated <strong>the</strong> real estate bubble to provide mortgages to feed a completely<br />

unregulated market in mortgage based securities <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir risk hedging partners credit default<br />

38


swaps. Clearly, <strong>the</strong> market <strong>and</strong> political power accounts in rent <strong>the</strong>ory are present in this series <strong>of</strong><br />

events. But so are o<strong>the</strong>r actors: consumers looking for interest rates better than inflation, institu-<br />

tional investors with cash to invest, corporate CEOs <strong>and</strong> shareholders seeking to maximize short-<br />

term pr<strong>of</strong>its for immediate rewards, <strong>and</strong> even <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve Bank attempting to obscure its<br />

political role in producing unemployment <strong>and</strong> slowing wage growth. So, while we do not dispute<br />

<strong>the</strong> fundamental role <strong>of</strong> power in producing market rents, <strong>the</strong>re is also a great deal <strong>of</strong> path depen-<br />

dency produced by multiple actors, attempting to solve multiple problems as <strong>the</strong>y arise in real<br />

historical time.<br />

We also document that <strong>the</strong> industry rents produced by financialization went to some<br />

classes <strong>of</strong> labor as well as to capital. Manager, Pr<strong>of</strong>essional <strong>and</strong> Sales occupations in each <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong>se industries reaped growing above market earnings after 1980. In <strong>the</strong> security industry em-<br />

ployee earnings grew most rapidly <strong>and</strong> preceded <strong>the</strong> onset <strong>of</strong> increased pr<strong>of</strong>itability. For <strong>the</strong> se-<br />

curity industry growth in <strong>the</strong> compensation <strong>of</strong> powerful employees, ra<strong>the</strong>r than high pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

seems to have characterized <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> financialization. Davis (2009) reports that investment<br />

banks historically were organized as partnerships ra<strong>the</strong>r than corporations, this may be <strong>the</strong> insti-<br />

tutional precursor for <strong>the</strong> high returns to employees we observe. In addition, in both insurance<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> security industry increased average employee pay preceded increased industry pr<strong>of</strong>itabil-<br />

ity. In both case it seems likely that performance based compensation schemes for managerial<br />

<strong>and</strong> sales personnel preceded <strong>and</strong> perhaps even helped create <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>it surges associated with<br />

investment <strong>and</strong> real estate bubbles. Crotty (2009) agrees that <strong>the</strong>se are economic rents <strong>and</strong> goes<br />

on to suggest that <strong>the</strong> very high compensation <strong>of</strong> “rainmakers” in <strong>the</strong> investment community was<br />

a source <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> systemic risk taking that eventually led to <strong>the</strong> collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world financial sys-<br />

tem. Populist anger at <strong>the</strong> size <strong>of</strong> bonuses at investment banks has clear roots in <strong>the</strong> current fi-<br />

39


nancial crisis. Our analyses suggest, however, that employee compensation is only between 26<br />

<strong>and</strong> 40% <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> long-term income transfers into <strong>the</strong> finance sector.<br />

The 2008 collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance sector is clearly important in a historical sense. It is also,<br />

potentially a moment <strong>of</strong> rent destruction for this sector. We already know that in 2008 pr<strong>of</strong>its fell<br />

into <strong>the</strong> negative range across <strong>the</strong> industry but rebounded strongly in 2009. Philippon <strong>and</strong> Reshef<br />

(2007) show a tremendous drop in finance sector rents during <strong>and</strong> after <strong>the</strong> Great Depression <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> 1930s. Clearly some <strong>of</strong> this was <strong>the</strong> shock <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> banking system, but much<br />

reflected <strong>the</strong> ensuing regulation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industry. Thus <strong>the</strong> contemporary collapse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> finance<br />

sector <strong>and</strong> re-inflation through <strong>the</strong> federal bailout is likely to be interesting <strong>the</strong>oretically <strong>and</strong> po-<br />

litically as a potential moment <strong>of</strong> rent destruction. At this point we know little about <strong>the</strong> conse-<br />

quences <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> collapse <strong>of</strong> this sector, but sociological rent <strong>the</strong>ory would suggest that politically<br />

more powerful actors (banking, insurance <strong>and</strong> securities) may be able to defend <strong>and</strong> perhaps pre-<br />

serve <strong>the</strong>ir existing market institutions <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> resulting capacity to extract rents. This is certainly<br />

what national politics in late 2009 <strong>and</strong> 2010 looked like. We see repeated media <strong>and</strong> political<br />

attention to <strong>the</strong> high wages <strong>and</strong> bonuses paid to employees in <strong>the</strong> finance industry. We also see<br />

major banks <strong>and</strong> bank holding companies struggling to repay federal bailout money as quickly as<br />

possible, <strong>of</strong>ten rationalized as necessary in order to pay high salaries to <strong>the</strong>ir top employees.<br />

Finally, <strong>and</strong> most consequentially for future income distributions <strong>the</strong>re is a struggle between<br />

banks <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r actors over <strong>the</strong> appropriate form <strong>of</strong> new regulations to manage systemic risk <strong>and</strong><br />

protect consumers from rent extraction. What form <strong>the</strong>se regulations take will likely determine<br />

<strong>the</strong> degree to which <strong>the</strong> finance sector will be able to continue to accumulate large proportions <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> national income.<br />

40


Our analysis points to <strong>the</strong> federal government as both <strong>the</strong> source <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> deregulation <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> finance sector <strong>and</strong> as failing to regulate emerging financial markets <strong>and</strong> innovative financial<br />

instruments. If neoliberalism was a policy <strong>and</strong> intellectual movement away from state regulation<br />

<strong>and</strong> towards markets, financialization was perhaps its most fundamental product. Certainly <strong>the</strong><br />

transfer <strong>of</strong> national wealth into <strong>the</strong> finance sector was one <strong>of</strong> its most dramatic consequences.<br />

Now that that same sector has crippled <strong>the</strong> world economy while creating conditions <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>ound<br />

economic uncertainty for investors, unprecedented federal spending deficits in <strong>the</strong> US <strong>and</strong> else-<br />

where, <strong>and</strong> intense suffering for households, it seems clear that both <strong>the</strong> economic power <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

finance sector <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> consequences <strong>of</strong> that power for income distributions should become cen-<br />

tral to future economic policy.<br />

It may be <strong>the</strong> case, however, that <strong>the</strong> neoliberal cultural embrace <strong>of</strong> markets in general<br />

<strong>and</strong> financial markets in particular will prevent <strong>the</strong> recognition <strong>of</strong> both <strong>the</strong> risk associated with<br />

pooling so much <strong>of</strong> national wealth in <strong>the</strong> h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> a few actors in <strong>the</strong> finance sector <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> con-<br />

templation <strong>of</strong> any solutions o<strong>the</strong>r than market solutions. In this vein Krippner (fc) points out <strong>the</strong><br />

problematic nature <strong>of</strong> post-crisis efforts to regulate <strong>the</strong> finance sector “Under neoliberal econom-<br />

ic management… <strong>the</strong> state’s avoidance <strong>of</strong> responsibility for economic outcomes may shield poli-<br />

cy makers from public scrutiny, but it does not build a foundation for state action” (Krippner fc,<br />

p. 230). The neoliberal obscuring <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> essentially political basis <strong>of</strong> market institutions robs state<br />

actors <strong>of</strong> a language with which to lead reform. In this sense, <strong>the</strong> political choices <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federal<br />

Reserve to obscure its role in creating <strong>the</strong> economy may prevent it from acting to save it.<br />

We can be sure from our analyses that <strong>the</strong> generous compensation <strong>of</strong> employees in <strong>the</strong><br />

Securities Industry is a result <strong>of</strong> financialization, but it also st<strong>and</strong>s out for being embedded in a<br />

labor centered model <strong>of</strong> rent extraction. In <strong>the</strong> securities industry partners <strong>and</strong> powerful em-<br />

41


ployees have reaped <strong>the</strong> rewards associated with <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> US economy. In in-<br />

surance, banking, <strong>and</strong> real estate it is <strong>the</strong> owners <strong>of</strong> capital who have accumulated most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

economic rents produced through financialization, although only in banking <strong>and</strong> for <strong>the</strong> new<br />

bank holding companies does this seem to be a long term, recurring transfer <strong>of</strong> national income.<br />

Of course, after 1999 <strong>the</strong> distinction between banks, insurance <strong>and</strong> investment firms was consi-<br />

derably weakened. The movement <strong>of</strong> investment activities into bank holding companies may<br />

weaken <strong>the</strong> influence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> employee compensation model in <strong>the</strong> old securities industry, as <strong>the</strong>se<br />

activities become absorbed in more bank-like organizations <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> super earnings <strong>of</strong> traders are<br />

transferred into super pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>of</strong> bank holding companies. In <strong>the</strong> absence <strong>of</strong> new regulation (or<br />

taxation) we can expect that <strong>the</strong>se super-sized diversified financial institutions will only increase<br />

<strong>the</strong>ir ability to absorb <strong>the</strong> income generated by <strong>the</strong> US economy. If that income is again depen-<br />

dent upon or is in a positive feedback loop with speculative financial investments it is only a<br />

matter <strong>of</strong> time before <strong>the</strong> next bubble <strong>and</strong> systematic crash.<br />

This paper is written at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> 2010, just as Wall Street is making record pay-<br />

ments to its employees (Luchetti <strong>and</strong> Grocer 2009) <strong>and</strong> Ben Bernanke was reconfirmed as <strong>the</strong><br />

Chair <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federal Reserve Bank. There is thus some reason to expect that <strong>the</strong>re will not be a<br />

fundamental shift in <strong>the</strong> regulatory approach to <strong>the</strong> finance sector <strong>and</strong> that finance as <strong>the</strong> new<br />

religion <strong>of</strong> economic policy may continue its sovereignty (Davis 2009) <strong>and</strong> continue to benefit<br />

from <strong>the</strong> income rents that accrue to its cultural as well as economic centrality. Somebody, <strong>of</strong><br />

course, always pays <strong>the</strong> rent. In this case it seems to have been <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economy, both<br />

non-financial firms that paid increasing portions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir incomes to <strong>the</strong> finance sector <strong>and</strong><br />

households whose wages were restricted by <strong>the</strong> declining market power <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir employers <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong>ir increased payments <strong>of</strong> fees <strong>and</strong> interest to a financial sector ever more clever at extracting<br />

42


ents from o<strong>the</strong>r actors in <strong>the</strong> economy. Although we have not demonstrated it here, <strong>the</strong>re is also<br />

<strong>the</strong> disturbing possibility that <strong>the</strong> financialization <strong>of</strong> investment will lead to long term neglect <strong>of</strong><br />

investment in productive assets by institutional investors in favor <strong>of</strong> financial speculation in<br />

search <strong>of</strong> short term returns.<br />

43


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48


%GDP<br />

10 15 20 25 30 35<br />

Figure 1. Finance <strong>and</strong> Manufacturing Value-Added as Percent <strong>of</strong> US GDP<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Year<br />

Finance<br />

Manufacturing<br />

Source: Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis, Gross-Domestic-Product-(GDP)-by-Industry Data series: Classification:<br />

NAICS 1947-2008<br />

49


%Pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

10 20 30 40<br />

Figure 2. Finance Sector Pr<strong>of</strong>its Before Tax <strong>and</strong> Realized Pr<strong>of</strong>its as Percent <strong>of</strong> all US Pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

FIRE (SIC, PBT without CCA*)<br />

FIRE + Holding Companies** (NAICS, PBT without CCA)<br />

FIRE (SIC, with CCA)<br />

FIRE + Holding Companies (NAICS, with CCA)<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Year<br />

Source: Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis, Table 6.17 Corporate Pr<strong>of</strong>its Before Tax by Industry <strong>and</strong> Table 6.22 Corporate Capital Consumption Allowance by<br />

Industry: Classification: SIC1972: 1948-1987, SIC1987: 1988-2000, NAICS2002: 1998-2008<br />

*Realized Pr<strong>of</strong>its do not include Capital Consumption Allowances, Pr<strong>of</strong>its before Taxes include Capital Consumption Allowance. Pr<strong>of</strong>its reported here are<br />

corporate pr<strong>of</strong>its with inventory valuation adjustment before tax <strong>and</strong> dividends are paid. We use realized pr<strong>of</strong>its, instead <strong>of</strong> cash flow (Krippner 2005), to<br />

conceptualize <strong>the</strong> sum <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its before tax <strong>and</strong> capital consumption allowance. Cash flow is commonly used to indicate <strong>the</strong> sum <strong>of</strong> undistributed pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

(i.e. pr<strong>of</strong>its net <strong>of</strong> dividends <strong>and</strong> tax) <strong>and</strong> depreciation allowance. Realized pr<strong>of</strong>its can also be interpreted as pr<strong>of</strong>its before tax with inventory valuation <strong>and</strong><br />

capital consumption adjustments plus consumption <strong>of</strong> fixed capital.<br />

** This category includes non-financial holding companies.<br />

50


Ratio<br />

1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7<br />

Figure 3. Finance Compensation Share over National Employment Share<br />

FIRE (SIC)<br />

FIRE (NAICS)<br />

FIRE + Holding Companies* (NAICS)<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Year<br />

Source: Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis, Table 6.2Compensation <strong>of</strong> Employees by Industry <strong>and</strong> Table 6.5 Full-Time Equivalent Employees by Industry:<br />

Classification: SIC1972: 1948-1987, SIC1987: 1988-2000, NAICS2002: 1998-2008<br />

* This category includes non-financial holding companies.<br />

51


Institutions<br />

8000 10000 12000 14000<br />

Figure 4. Total Numbers <strong>of</strong> Firms <strong>and</strong> Total Assets <strong>of</strong> FDIC Commercial Banks 1934-2007<br />

Total Institutions (left axis)<br />

Total Assets (right axis, in millions)<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Source: Banking Statistics, FDIC<br />

Year<br />

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000<br />

52


%Pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

0 5 10 15 20<br />

Figure 5. Finance Realized Pr<strong>of</strong>it (without Capital Consumption Allowances)<br />

as Percent <strong>of</strong> all Pr<strong>of</strong>it by Detailed Industry<br />

Bank & Credit (SIC)<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment (SIC)<br />

Insurance (SIC)<br />

Real estate (SIC)<br />

Bank & Credit (NAICS)<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment (NAICS)<br />

Insurance (NAICS)<br />

Real estate (NAICS)<br />

Holding Companies*<br />

Bank & Credit + Management (NAICS)<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Year<br />

Source: Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis, Table 6.17 Corporate Pr<strong>of</strong>its Before Tax by Industry <strong>and</strong> Table 6.22 Corporate Capital Consumption Allowance<br />

by Industry. Classification: SIC1972: 1948-1987, SIC1987: 1988-2000, NAICS2002: 1998-2008<br />

* This category includes non-financial holding companies.<br />

53


Ratio<br />

Bank & Credit (SIC)<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment (SIC)<br />

Insurance (SIC)<br />

Real estate (SIC)<br />

Bank & Credit (NAICS)<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment (NAICS)<br />

Insurance (NAICS)<br />

Real estate (NAICS)<br />

Holding Companies*<br />

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 Figure 6. Finance Compensation Share over National Employment Share by Detailed Industry<br />

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010<br />

Year<br />

Source: Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Economic</strong> Analysis, Table 6.2Compensation <strong>of</strong> Employees by Industry <strong>and</strong> Table 6.5 Full-Time Equivalent Employees by Industry<br />

Classification: SIC1972: 1948-1987, SIC1987: 1988-2000, NAICS2002: 1998-2008<br />

* This category includes some non-financial holding companies.<br />

54


Ratio<br />

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0<br />

Figure 7. Observed Annual Earnings Relative to <strong>the</strong> Non-finance Economy<br />

by Detailed Industry, CPS Estimates<br />

Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment<br />

Insurance<br />

Real Estate<br />

1970 1980 1990 2000<br />

Year<br />

55


Ratio<br />

CPS Estimates adjusted for shifts in <strong>the</strong> employee <strong>and</strong> occupational composition <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industries<br />

Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commodities & Investment<br />

Insurance<br />

Real Estate<br />

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 Figure 8. Predicted Annual Earnings Relative to <strong>the</strong> Non-finance Economy by Detailed Industry,<br />

1970 1980 1990 2000<br />

Year<br />

56


Table 1. Summary <strong>of</strong> Institutional Account <strong>of</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong><br />

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s<br />

Pre-financialization <strong>Financialization</strong><br />

Precipitating<br />

Factors<br />

Oil Crisis, low-growth, highinflation<br />

economy, global economic<br />

competition<br />

Actors Problems Solutions Institutional Shifts<br />

State Stagflation <strong>and</strong> political pressure<br />

from corporate actors<br />

Non-Financial Reaching national market limit, facing<br />

global competition<br />

Financial High inflation threatens bank pr<strong>of</strong>its<br />

from traditional banking activity;<br />

Reaching local market limits<br />

Adopt deregulation<br />

policies<br />

Dem<strong>and</strong> economic<br />

deregulation, lower<br />

taxes, <strong>and</strong> a smaller<br />

state<br />

Dem<strong>and</strong> deregulation<br />

<strong>of</strong> interest rates, mergers,<br />

cross-state banking;<br />

function limits<br />

Consumers High inflation undermines savings Dem<strong>and</strong> deregulation<br />

<strong>of</strong> interest rates<br />

Institutional<br />

Investors<br />

Foreign<br />

Capital<br />

Neoclassical<br />

Economists<br />

High inflation, low growth undermines<br />

traditional investment strategy<br />

Japan , later China <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs seek to<br />

invest capital surplus<br />

Number <strong>and</strong> size <strong>of</strong><br />

institutional investors<br />

increases<br />

<strong>Financialization</strong> <strong>of</strong> state, regulatory capture, dismantling<br />

<strong>of</strong> Glass-Steagall regulations, neoliberal consen-<br />

sus<br />

Rise <strong>of</strong> shareholder value conception <strong>of</strong> firm, focus on<br />

short term financial goals ra<strong>the</strong>r than long term capital<br />

investment, rise <strong>of</strong> finance CEOs, CEO pay tied to<br />

stock market performance, income transfers to finance<br />

sector <strong>and</strong> top management<br />

Increased sector income, tied to deregulation, unregulated<br />

innovation in financial instruments <strong>and</strong> crosssector<br />

activity, <strong>and</strong> increased industry concentration.<br />

Rise <strong>of</strong> gigantic bank holding companies; increased<br />

political power <strong>of</strong> sector; increased systemic risk tied<br />

to concentration <strong>and</strong> scale<br />

Easier to get credit, face predatory lending, high interest<br />

rates, after 2003 collapse <strong>of</strong> mortgage screening by<br />

banks<br />

Increased investment in speculative financial instruments,<br />

increased expectations for stable or high returns<br />

Investment in U.S. financial instruments increases<br />

Advocate market is self-regulating ; develop “efficient markets hypo<strong>the</strong>sis”<br />

57


Table 2. Estimates (in millions <strong>of</strong> 2000 US dollars) <strong>of</strong> <strong>Income</strong> Transfers<br />

into <strong>the</strong> Finance Sector during <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> <strong>Financialization</strong> (after 1998<br />

holding companies are included in <strong>the</strong> financial sector income estimates ).<br />

1981-2008 2000-2008<br />

Counterfactual 1948-1980 1948-1980 1948-1980 1948-1980<br />

method Average Trend Average Trend<br />

Pr<strong>of</strong>its 3,769,808 2,710,983 1,727,048 1,375,425<br />

Compensation 1,333,998 1,817,432 748,112 964,313<br />

Total Rent $5,103,806 $4,528,415 $2,475,160 $2,339,738<br />

Pr<strong>of</strong>its/Total 73.9% 59.9% 69.8% 58.8%<br />

58


Appendix A. Industry classification concordance across time <strong>and</strong> data sources.<br />

We re-categorize <strong>the</strong> financial industries in St<strong>and</strong>ard Industrial Classification 1972, 1987, North America Industry Classification System, <strong>and</strong> Census Bureau<br />

1950 industrial Classification using following concordance.<br />

Used Categories Original Categories<br />

SIC 1972 SIC 1987 NAICS 2002 CPS Census Bureau 1950 industrial<br />

classification<br />

FIRE (SIC)<br />

Finance, insurance,<br />

<strong>and</strong> real estate<br />

Finance, insurance,<br />

<strong>and</strong> real estate<br />

-- --<br />

FIRE (NAICS)* -- -- Finance <strong>and</strong> insurance --<br />

-- --<br />

Real estate <strong>and</strong> rental <strong>and</strong><br />

--<br />

leasing<br />

Bank & Credit (SIC) Banking Depository institutions -- --<br />

Credit agencies o<strong>the</strong>r Nondepository institu-<br />

than banks<br />

tions<br />

-- --<br />

Bank & Credit (NAICS) -- -- Federal Reserve banks --<br />

-- --<br />

Credit intermediation<br />

related activities<br />

<strong>and</strong><br />

--<br />

Bank & Credit (CPS) -- -- -- Banking <strong>and</strong> credit agencies<br />

Securities, Commodities &<br />

Investment (SIC)<br />

Security <strong>and</strong><br />

modity brokers<br />

com- Security <strong>and</strong><br />

modity brokers<br />

com-<br />

-- --<br />

Securities, Commodities &<br />

Investment (NAICS)<br />

-- --<br />

Securities, commodity contracts,<br />

<strong>and</strong> investments<br />

--<br />

Securities, Commodities &<br />

Investment (CPS)<br />

-- -- --<br />

Security <strong>and</strong> commodity brokerage<br />

<strong>and</strong> investment companies<br />

Insurance (SIC) Insurance carriers Insurance carriers -- --<br />

Insurance agents, brokers,<br />

<strong>and</strong> service<br />

Insurance agents, brokers,<br />

<strong>and</strong> service<br />

-- --<br />

Insurance (NAICS) -- --<br />

Insurance carriers <strong>and</strong> related<br />

activities<br />

--<br />

Insurance (CPS) -- Insurance<br />

Real Estate (SIC) Real estate Real estate -- --<br />

Real Estate (NAICS) -- -- Real estate --<br />

59


Real Estate (CPS) -- -- -- Real estate<br />

Holding Companies** -- --<br />

Management <strong>of</strong> companies<br />

<strong>and</strong> enterprises<br />

--<br />

*For NAICS, <strong>the</strong> bank holding companies are not included in <strong>the</strong> FIRE category. Thus, using only this category could underestimate <strong>the</strong> performance <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> whole financial sector.<br />

**This category includes both financial <strong>and</strong> nonfinancial hold companies.<br />

60


Appendix B. Sector <strong>and</strong> industry shifts employee characteristics <strong>and</strong> occupational structure, CPS 1970-2008<br />

Periods Industry<br />

1970-<br />

1979<br />

Non-Financial<br />

1980-<br />

1989<br />

1990-<br />

1999<br />

2000-<br />

2008<br />

Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commoditiesvestment<br />

Insurance<br />

& In-<br />

Real Estate<br />

Non-Financial<br />

Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commoditiesvestment<br />

Insurance<br />

& In-<br />

Real Estate<br />

Non-Financial<br />

Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commoditiesvestment<br />

Insurance<br />

& In-<br />

Real Estate<br />

Non-Financial<br />

Adjusted<br />

Earnings<br />

(S.D.)<br />

26870.70<br />

(23234.46)<br />

28396.74<br />

(22852.21)<br />

47567.97<br />

(40266.12)<br />

34045.69<br />

(27188.11)<br />

27179.15<br />

(27562.17)<br />

25159.06<br />

(23300.25)<br />

28827.49<br />

(23457.33)<br />

50545.26<br />

(40957.44)<br />

33284.85<br />

(25954.26)<br />

27409.67<br />

(28715.45)<br />

27663.18<br />

(29907.03)<br />

34306.74<br />

(36028.95)<br />

62135.98<br />

(67208.65)<br />

39422.32<br />

(37192.36)<br />

32416.81<br />

(42102.57)<br />

32307.26<br />

(39540.40)<br />

Managers &<br />

Pr<strong>of</strong>essionals Sales<br />

High School &<br />

Some College College +<br />

24.37% 5.81% 54.07% 15.49%<br />

31.80% 0.85% 75.94% 16.99%<br />

24.03% 32.77% 53.52% 39.59%<br />

19.01% 35.93% 70.31% 23.10%<br />

19.33% 30.84% 58.00% 16.45%<br />

28.08% 5.87% 58.74% 19.57%<br />

34.91% 1.64% 72.32% 24.01%<br />

30.94% 37.97% 46.76% 50.64%<br />

23.96% 36.54% 67.35% 28.63%<br />

26.59% 27.55% 60.69% 23.08%<br />

33.01% 5.48% 60.48% 23.25%<br />

41.02% 3.32% 66.65% 31.00%<br />

39.56% 37.49% 38.00% 60.43%<br />

30.61% 40.96% 62.38% 35.00%<br />

30.87% 25.90% 61.48% 26.11%<br />

35.76% 5.44% 58.56% 27.50%<br />

Age<br />

(S.D)<br />

35.72<br />

(14.47)<br />

34.09<br />

(13.37)<br />

37.19<br />

(14.61)<br />

35.42<br />

(13.48)<br />

41.05<br />

(15.71)<br />

35.17<br />

(13.83)<br />

34.44<br />

(12.53)<br />

35.73<br />

(12.62)<br />

36.15<br />

(12.78)<br />

39.76<br />

(14.90)<br />

36.64<br />

(13.36)<br />

36.18<br />

(11.94)<br />

37.71<br />

(12.33)<br />

38.46<br />

(11.94)<br />

41.47<br />

(14.17)<br />

38.56<br />

(13.85)<br />

Total Yearly<br />

Work Hours<br />

(S.D) White Male<br />

1689.94<br />

84.46% 58.21%<br />

(826.33)<br />

1802.84<br />

(615.36)<br />

88.88% 34.22%<br />

1931.09 (621.25) 93.11% 62.74%<br />

1887.93<br />

(661.83)<br />

1735.75<br />

(893.24)<br />

1669.68<br />

(814.76)<br />

1859.11<br />

(600.10)<br />

2022.85<br />

(667.67)<br />

1903.00<br />

(610.54)<br />

1729.48<br />

(822.03)<br />

1772.56<br />

(806.03)<br />

1945.30<br />

(606.10)<br />

2091.10<br />

(695.46)<br />

1988.37<br />

(585.55)<br />

1850.78<br />

(790.94)<br />

1825.12<br />

(764.83)<br />

90.24% 45.56%<br />

85.51% 57.24%<br />

81.29% 54.33%<br />

83.61% 29.18%<br />

87.50% 56.99%<br />

86.65% 37.64%<br />

83.27% 50.68%<br />

77.05% 53.34%<br />

79.04% 29.72%<br />

84.89% 58.44%<br />

82.88% 35.46%<br />

80.41% 51.26%<br />

72.06% 52.91%<br />

61


Bank & Credit<br />

Securities, Commoditiesvestment<br />

Insurance<br />

& In-<br />

Real Estate<br />

43667.64<br />

(50783.10)<br />

83289.47<br />

(94230.86)<br />

47326.60<br />

(51483.65)<br />

40834.71<br />

(54386.58)<br />

48.26% 5.06% 61.60% 36.09%<br />

58.76% 22.40% 31.26% 67.62%<br />

33.04% 36.53% 56.67% 41.81%<br />

31.30% 31.34% 59.64% 31.46%<br />

38.11<br />

(12.62)<br />

39.60<br />

(12.11)<br />

41.25<br />

(12.20)<br />

43.89<br />

(14.15)<br />

1991.73<br />

(581.74)<br />

2139.38<br />

(645.69)<br />

2021.73<br />

(555.06)<br />

1898.62<br />

(740.49)<br />

73.57% 34.47%<br />

81.16% 59.28%<br />

78.47% 36.21%<br />

76.48% 49.45%<br />

62

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