UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Globalisation and financialisation in the Netherlands, 1995 - 2020
Joan Muysken & Huub Meijers #2022-006The Dutch economy is a small open economy. Due to its persistent large
current account surplus, the Dutch net foreign assets have been
increasing over time. The financial sector is dominated by special
purpose vehicles created for tax reasons. The financial assets and
liabilities of these vehicles are issued or held abroad, amounting to
around 500 per cent of GDP. The remaining part of the financial sector
has almost doubled in size relative to GDP over the past 25 years. While
the growth of the banking sector stagnated since the financial crisis,
the financial sector continued to grow because of the presence of a
funded pension system. We analyse these developments using insights from
stock flow consistent models for the Dutch economy that we have
developed earlier. This analysis also enables us to highlight the role
monetary policy played in facilitating and stimulating the growth of
financialisation.
JEL Classification: E44, B5, E6, F45, G21, G32
Keywords: globalisation, financialisation, quantitative easing, stock-flow consistent modelling
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