The changing role of the Bank of England: 2006-2015

Evemy, John (2019). The changing role of the Bank of England: 2006-2015. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The financial crisis of 2007–2009 triggered a global response and a drastic transformation in central banking. This study maps out these transformations in the British context through a detailed analysis of the Bank of England and its changing role in the British political and economic landscape from 2006 to 2015. In doing so, this thesis makes an original contribution both through a clear and cohesive account of the changing role of the Bank of England since the financial crisis and, in order to develop this cohesive account, a novel historical materialist approach to central banks as key to the production and reproduction of money as credit in capitalism. Thus, in contrast to a fractured literature on the different aspects of the Bank of England’s changing role since the financial crisis, this thesis provides a detailed unified account by situating the Bank of England within the broader problems and contradictions of money in capitalism. The subsequent account of the changing role of the Bank of England thus traces the changing role of the Bank of England as it faced a series of crises of money: first as credit, then as means of exchange and finally as capital. Process shaped and shaped by the institutional and political economy of “operational independence”, as tensions emerged with the British State over the direction of monetary, regulatory and fiscal policy. The policies subsequently adopted saw the Bank of England transition from a “narrow” detached central bank to one directly engaged in the discretionary management and regulation of both finance and the economy.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):