Why do we have a financial system?

About the lecture

In this module, we look at the key question of why we have a financial system. In particular, we will focus on: (i) what does the financial system look like in the physical world; (ii) what do financial firms do; (iii) the difference between stocks and bonds, and other financial assets; (iv) do we need a financial system, including the link between economic development and financial development; (v) what happens when countries don’t have a financial system; and (vi) what is the purpose of a financial system.

About the lecturer

Professor Sir John Kay is a fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford. As well as this he also served as the first dean of Oxford’s Said Business School, the former Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and as a director of Halifax plc and of several investment companies. He specialises in the relationships between economics and business, and has written a number of books on this subject, including The Truth About Markets (2003), Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance (2015), and Radical Uncertainty (2020) co-authored with Mervyn King. In addition to this he writes about economics for a popular audience through a weekly column in the Financial Times.