DP10350 Does Finance Benefit Society?

Author(s):	Luigi Zingales
Publication Date:	January 2015
Keyword(s):	financial development, financial integration, rent seeking
JEL(s):	G00, O43
Programme Areas:	Financial Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=10350

Academics' view of the benefits of finance vastly exceeds societal perception. This dissonance is at least partly explained by an under-appreciation by academia of how, without proper rules, finance can easily degenerate into a rent-seeking activity. I outline what finance academics can do, from a research point of view and from an educational point of view, to promote good finance and minimize the bad.