U utorak, 2. studenog 2021. godine,s početkom u 10:40 sati, u sklopu projekta Stručnom praksom do ranog razvoja karijere, u dvorani Pula održat će se gostujuće predavanje renomiranog međunarodnog stručnjaka, konzultanta i istraživača dr.sc. Milforda Batemana. Predavanje će se održati u sklopu kolegija Uvod u ekonomiju i namijenjeno je svim studentima prve godine studija te Erasmus studentima preddiplomskog studija Ekonomije i Poslovne ekonomije. Naziv predavanja je Fintech Revolution: Qui Bono?
The Fintech Revolution: Cui bono?
'Fintech' (financial technology) represents by far the most important technological and financial innovation to have emerged this last two decades. In its simplest form, which I focus on here, it involves a greatly enhanced ability to transact financial services via a mobile phone or smart device, thus making it easier, cheaper and quicker to (1) access a loan, (2) make a savings deposit, (3) transfer and receive money, and (4) pay for and be paid for goods and services. Beginning with Kenya's iconic M-Pesa money transfer platform in the early 2000s and major developments in China such as AliPay and WeChat, many began to argue that fintech, markets and finance were combining in a way that would significantly improve the lives of every individual around the globe, especially in the Global South. Some of the most enthusiastic fintech advocates have gone so far as to claim that a new 'golden age' of global free market capitalism is now upon us. This lecture advises that extreme caution is warranted. As a result of a number of important recent developments and worrying trends, the sour reality is not just that the initial benefits of fintech do not always persist into the longer term, but that they are increasingly being swamped by a number of dis-benefits that serve to destabilise and undermine the functioning of local economies and social structures. Using key case studies, especially the hugely celebrated example of Kenya, this lecture will explore the origins of fintech, the governance structure within which it largely operates, why and how mainstream neoclassical economists misrepresented the impact evidence to boost its appeal, what the longer-term problems and dis-benefits actually are and, finally, what alternative governance structures within which fintech is deployed might be better for us all.
O predavaču:
Milford Bateman
SHORT CV
Dr Bateman obtained his PhD from the University of Bradford (UK) in 1993. From 1991 to 2000 Dr Bateman held a tenured position as Assistant Professor then Associate Professor in East European Economics at the University of Wolverhampton. As a freelance consultant from 2000, he has worked on local economic development projects for almost all of the major international development agencies with assignments in the Middle East, China, Africa and Latin America.
Dr Bateman has also published widely on the key issues affecting local economic development, including the influential ‘Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism’ published by Zed Books in 2010 and which is now being prepared for a 2nd updated edition due out in 2020. His latest book published in January 2019 by Routledge in cooperation with UNCTAD and co-edited with Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright is entitled ‘The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit: Development, Debt and Disillusion’. Finally, his most recent work with Maren Duvendack and Nicholas Loubere seeks to critically assess the development impact of the global ‘fintech’ (financial technology) movement epitomised by such as Kenya’s iconic M-Pesa.
