Books

China’s Chance to Lead: Acquiring Global Influence via Infrastructure Development and Digitalization (2023, Cambridge University Press)

How is China acquiring global influence? Rather than focusing exclusively on China's interests, this book considers a vital but overlooked feature – the interests of recipient countries. Richard W. Carney argues that countries in which political leaders rely more heavily on clientelism coupled with greater control over the corporate sector have a higher demand for Chinese infrastructure spending. Through a combination of statistical analyses and case studies, Carney shows that electoral autocracies (in contrast to closed autocracies, electoral democracies, and liberal democracies) display these features most prominently and are the most avid recipients. This in turn contributes to elevated levels of Chinese digital technologies imports which facilitates the spread of Chinese technical standards, enabling China to create the scale to assert its dominance over the emerging digital economy. Electoral autocracies are the most prevalent type of regime, and are therefore essential partners to China's global ambitions.

“Where Carney’s contribution excels is in unpacking the demand side for Chinese infrastructure development and state-owned enterprise (SOE) FDI.”

“Where Carney’s contribution also excels is in reminding us that the world on which many university and business school curricula have been designed no longer exists.”

Authoritarian Capitalism: Sovereign Wealth Funds and State-Owned Enterprises in East Asia and Beyond (2019, Cambridge University Press)

Since 1945, the liberal-democratic model of capitalism spread across the globe, ultimately prevailing over communism. Over the past two decades, a new statist-authoritarian model has begun diffusing across East Asia. Rather than rejecting capitalism, authoritarian leaders harness it to uphold their rule. Based on extensive research of East Asia's largest corporations and sovereign wealth funds, this book argues that the most aggressive version of this model does not belong to China. Rather, it can be found in Malaysia and Singapore. Although these countries are small, the implications are profound because one-third of all countries in the world possess the same type of regime. With an increasing number of these authoritarian regimes establishing sovereign wealth funds, their ability to intervene in the corporate sectors of other countries is rapidly expanding.

Contested Capitalism: The political origins of financial institutions (2009, Routledge)

The institutional arrangements of financial systems are widely seen as a central distinguishing feature of ‘varieties of capitalism’. Through a wide-range of case studies, this book contends that political battles between landed interests, labor, and owners of capital have fundamentally shaped modern financial arrangements. Demonstrating how these conflicts have shaped contemporary financial architecture in a number of different contexts, author Richard W. Carney offers an innovative approach to explaining the distinctive capitalist arrangements of nation-states. By demonstrating the importance of landed interests to nations’ institutional configurations, the book has clear implications for developing countries such as India and China.

Lessons from the Asian Financial Crisis (editor) (2009, Routledge)

Nearly ten years after the Asian Financial Crisis, financial turmoil has reappeared; this time it is ravaging the world's wealthiest countries and dragging the global economy along for the ride. It forces one to reflect on the last major financial crisis to afflict the global economy, and to consider whether there are any similarities, and whether there are any lessons from that crisis that we can apply to the current one.

Written by a distinguished group of individuals from government, the private sector, international organizations, and academia, this book provides an overview of developments in the main affected countries during the Asian Financial Crisis, as well as the lessons learned and corrective measures taken at the country, regional, and international levels. Importantly, attention is also paid to the areas where substantial improvements are needed. The current crisis heightens the relevance of these lessons.