An overview of the literature on financialization (1992-2017): a bibliometric approach

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the literature on financialization between 1992 and 2017 from a bibliometric approach using the VOSviewer software. Specifically, it seeks to delineate the state of the art of literature, identifying specific studies, publication vehicles and key authors, as well as the subfields in which the contributions have been distributed. We propose the identification of five major approaches. The first approach refers to the analysis of financialization from a critique of the maximization of shareholder value standpoint. The second group represents a set of Marxist and post-Keynesian works that focus on the evaluation of financialization as a new pattern of accumulation. The third approach is organized around the spread within society of norms, practices, rules of conduct and vocabulary typical of financial markets and their impact on daily life. The fourth group focuses on the assessment of the way in which contemporary finance shapes the organization of space, particularly urban areas. Finally, the fifth group is devoted to examining the impact of financialization on rural activity, particularly in underdeveloped economies dependent on commodity exports.

Keywords:
Financialization; Heterodox economics; Bibliometrics; Scopus; VOSviewer