La prise des risques financiers : une approche macro-économique du rôle des marchés

The rise of finance in developed economies is, for a part at least, a response to the provision and use of an ever growing volume of productive capital stocks and to the accumulation of an ever growing amount of financial assets, which is its counterpart. It is, however, far from being only a mechanical consequence of the development of the real sphere of the economy: the development of financial markets has also radically altered the way financial risks associated with the financing of the accumulation of capital stocks are now borne. The mechanisms allocating savings and redistributing financial risks at the disposal of our economies have, however, neither the efficiency nor the robustness advocated by the proponents of financial liberalization. The mass of risks a financial system can absorb depends not only on prudential regulatory constraints, but also on financial agents’ attitude towards risk. The pro-cyclical nature of the latter has a major impact on financial stability: the system can suddenly be unable to strike a balance on its own.