Standards and SSOs in the contested widening and deepening of financial markets

The arrival of Green Municipal Bonds in Mexico City

Bibliographic Data

ID4139737
AuthorsH Hilbrandt (0000-0001-8873-425X, University of Zurich, corresponding author), Monika Grubbauer (HafenCity University Hamburg)
Year2020
Volume52
Issue7
Pages1415-1433
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0308518x20909391
OpenAlexW3008751492
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited87

Particularly since the financial crisis of 2008, much has been written about the growing influence of finance in the development of cities in the global North. Today, financial markets also appear to be expanding southwards. A small but growing number of existing studies on the financialization of Southern cities helpfully explore how international investment changes urban development locally. Yet, they say less about the actors, procedures, and hurdles through which global market expansion is forged and expanded in the first place. In this paper, we examine the role of standards and standards-setting organizations in fostering market expansion and financial deepening. In particular, we highlight the efforts of standards-setting organizations in implementing a novel financial tool, green municipal bonds. Green municipal bonds are debt instruments that allow cities to raise capital through the issuance of bonds exclusively for investment in projects certified as sustainable. First employed by European, Canadian, and US cities, the paper traces the processes that led up to the issuance of these bonds in Mexico City, one of the first municipalities in the so-called 'emerging markets' to issue green municipal bonds. Our findings indicate that standards barely impacted project implementation; nevertheless, with the political efforts of standards-setting organizations, standards worked as vehicles through which infrastructures of markets, knowledge, and political support were built, legitimized, and secured. While these processes widened and deepened financialization, they also encountered challenges in terms of the long-term stabilization of these infrastructures and the upkeep of political support

Bond · Bond market · Business · Capital market · Debt · Economics · Economy · Financial market · Financial system · Financialization · Municipal bond · Political science · Politics · Housing Market and Economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Finance

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