Stanford University

Economic Affairs

Global Capitalism, Trust and Accountability Conference

-

The Program on Capitalism and Democracy
presents a two-day conference
Co-sponsored by the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)

Global Capitalism, Trust, and Accountability conference

Are democratic governments equipped and willing to hold global capital accountable, and does their failure to do so affect citizens’ trust?

Global capitalism has reshaped trade, economic priorities, and financial flows — and, in doing so, has also transformed societies and politics. However, the transnational nature of global capital has presented an intellectual and policy challenge as corporate activities and corruption adapt to the global environment. While activists, journalists, and scholars have investigated and publicized these issues, much work remains to develop coherent analytical understandings of these problems.  

Democratic governments often struggle to establish and enforce proper rules for corporate malfeasance and corruption. Domestic regulations present jurisdictional challenges, and corporate law, which enables corporations, has yet to be effective in preventing them and their leaders from dodging accountability in global markets. The world of global capital is opaque, designed explicitly to hide assets or evade the reach of governments. The financialization of the global economy has expanded the power not only of banks but also of professional services that facilitate ties between wealthy individuals, political leaders, and tax havens or shelters.

This conference brings together scholars across the disciplines of law, business, social sciences, and history, as well as practitioners and journalists, to explore the challenge of creating trust and accountability in a system dominated by global capitalism. In convening together, we aim to advance research, education, and policy on these critical issues.

Organizers

Anat Admati (George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics, GSB, and Faculty Director of the Capitalism and Democracy Program at CDDRL) and Didi Kuo (Center Fellow, CDDRL)

Anat R. Admati Anat Admati

Anat R. Admati

Didi Kuo Didi Kuo

Didi Kuo

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

 

1:30 - 1:45 — Introduction and Opening Remarks
 

Peter DeMarzo, Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Business (Interim)
Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Didi Kuo, Center Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Anat Admati, George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

1:45 - 3:15 pm Session 1 — Why Trustworthy Governments are Essential
 

For markets and capitalism to continue producing broad-based prosperity, governments must maintain the institutions that underpin the market economy, ensuring that property and human rights are protected, that people have fair access to society’s resources and that contracts and laws are enforced effectively. This panel examines the forces that can help make institutions trustworthy or in turn cause trust to erode, framing key issues that the rest of the conference explores.

MODERATOR
Curtis Milhaupt, Stanford Law School

PANELISTS
Vic Khanna, University of Michigan Law School
Naomi Lamoreaux, Economics and History, Yale University
Alexander Cooley, Political Science, Barnard College

DISCUSSANT
Rick Messick, Global Anticorruption Blog

3:15 - 3:45 — Break

 

3:45 - 5:15 pm — Session 2: Opacity and Illicit Flows


The globalization of financial flows, and the opacity of the global economic system and of many governments, have increased opportunities for wealthy individuals, kleptocrats and terrorists to evade law enforcement. How can we conceptualize and measure these problems and the harm they cause? What is the role of anonymous and multinational corporations, secrecy jurisdictions, transnational actors, and cryptocurrencies in shaping these opportunities, and how might these problems be addressed?

MODERATOR
Victoria Baranetsky, The Center for Investigative Reporting

PANELISTS
Dan Nielson, Government, University of Texas at Austin 
Gary Kalman, Transparency International US
Brooke Harrington, Sociology, Dartmouth College

DISCUSSANT
Mark Weidemaier, University of North Carolina School of  Law

5:30 - 6:15 pm — Keynote: Investigating “the Brazen”


Tom Wright, Co-Founder of Project Brazen; co-author of the bestseller, Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World; Former Wall Street Journal Asia Economics Editor

MODERATOR
Anat Admati, Stanford Graduate School of Business

6:30 — Reception and Dinner
 


SATURDAY, APRIL 5
 

8:00 - 8:30 am — Breakfast
 

8:30 - 9:15 am — Keynote: Is Cryptocurrency a Racket?


Judge Jed Rakoff, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

MODERATOR
Rohit Chopra, Former CFPB Director and FTC Commissioner

9:15 - 10:45 am — Session 3: The Law and Politics of Fighting Corruption


Can democratic governments and global institutions. through laws and international agreements, address corruption in its many forms within and across jurisdictions? What are the political forces that interfere with such efforts? This panel examines the mechanisms and tools that are available to policymakers, media and the public, to fight corruption in the private sector and in government, and the political and institutional challenges.

MODERATOR
Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

PANELISTS
Kevin Davis, New York University School of Law
Gerhard Schick, Finanzwende, Germany
John Githongo, Kenya

DISCUSSANT
Vikrant Vig, Stanford Graduate School of Business

10:45 - 11:15 am — Break
 

11:15 am -12:45 pm — Session 4: Greed, Norms, Culture, and Trust


Norms and culture, both in corporations, in government bodies, and in society at large, play a significant role in promoting trust and preventing misconduct. Global capitalism and democratic institutions reflect norms, but they also reshape them. This panel investigates the societal and democratic norms shaping transparency, whistleblowing, ways to hold power to account, and ultimately trust in institutions.

MODERATOR
Didi Kuo, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

PANELISTS
Jonathan Katz, The Brookings Institution
Peter Solmssen, Former Siemens AG
Miriam Baer, Brooklyn Law School

DISCUSSANT
Paola Sapienza, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

12:45 - 1:45 pm Lunch
 

1:45 - 3:15 pm — Session 5: Corporate Misconduct and the Law


What are the tools for deterring corporate misconduct, and are these tools being used effectively? This panel of experts on white-collar crime will explain why laws and enforcement mechanisms may fail to deter corporate misconduct and why corporate leaders are rarely appropriately held accountable. What is the interplay of institutions, politics, and power that undermines the rule of law in the corporate context?

MODERATOR
Anat Admati, Stanford Graduate School of Business

PANELISTS
Ellen S. Podgor, Stetson University College of Law
Elizabeth Pollman, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Fabio De Pasquale, Public Prosecutor's Office, Milan, Italy

DISCUSSANT
Jennifer Taub, Wayne State University Law School

3:15 -3:45 pm — Break
 

3:45 -5:15 pm — Session 6 (Round Table): What Academics, Activists, and the Media Can Do


This roundtable will enable all participants to brainstorm how academics, activists, and journalists can work together to accomplish shared goals around global capitalism and accountability. How are each sector's resources, voices, and contributions best deployed? How might individuals and organizations align their work and objectives? And most importantly, how might we create a more trustworthy and fair economic system for the 21st century?

MODERATOR
Bethany McLean, Vanity Fair

5:15 - 5:30 pm — Closing Remarks
 

5:30 pm — Closing Reception

In-person: By invitation only.

Virtual: Open to the public

Conferences
Date Label

Demand for Commitment in Credit and Saving Contracts: A Field Experiment

Paragraphs

We conduct a field experiment in which we offer credit and saving contracts to the same pool of Pakistani microfinance clients. Additional treatments test ex-ante demand for soft commitment (in the form of reminders, either to respondents or to their families), hard commitment (in the form of a penalty for missing an installment), and flexibility (an option to postpone an installment) to save or pay loan installments on time. We find substantial demand for fixed repayment contracts in both the credit and savings domains in ways that imply that respondents value the commitment required. While we find little or no average demand for additional contractual features, we nonetheless observe that different combinations of contractual add-ons are preferred depending on the respondent’s level of financial discipline. Respondents with high financial discipline prefer flexibility in credit contracts when combined with reminders to self, while those with low discipline value penalties in savings contracts only when paired with reminders. Our results imply that, for the average microfinance client, demand for commitment is met through the regular payment schedule built into standard microcredit or commitment savings contracts. However, combining penalties or flexibility with reminders may appeal to certain subsets of clients.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
The Economic Journal
Authors
Marcel Fafchamps
Number
Issue 664

Katherine Casey

0
Professor of Political Economy, Stanford GSB
Faculty Director, Stanford King Center on Global Development
headshot_casey_-_katherine_e_casey.jpg

Katherine Casey is Professor of Political Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Faculty Director of the King Center on Global Development. Her research explores the interactions between economic and political forces in developing countries, with particular interest in the role of information in enhancing political accountability and the influence of foreign aid on economic development. Her work has appeared in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, among others. 

CDDRL Affiliated Faculty
Hide publication sections
Off
Date Label

Israel Insights Webinar with Azar Gat — What Is The Problem With “The Palestinian Problem”?

-
Cover image for Gil Troy event

Despite the great progress made in Arab-Israeli rapprochement over the past several decades, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears as intractable today as it has ever been. Why has this conflict proved so difficult to resolve? Why have all attempts at a final peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians failed since the launch of the Oslo Peace Process in the early 1990's? And what can be learned from this history of failure about the prospects of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Join Amichai Magen in conversation with Azar Gat.

Read the essay here.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Azar Gat is the Ezer Weitzman Chair of National Security and Head of the International and Executive MA Programs in Security and Diplomacy in the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University. He is also Academic Advisor to the Executive Director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel-Aviv. Professor Gat is the author of 12 books - on democracy, nationalism, ideology, war and military history - which have been translated into numerous languages.

Virtual Event Only.

Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

Virtual Only Event.

Azar Gat
Seminars
Date Label

Democracy Dilemma: Business Leadership in an Era of Rising Autocracies

-
Bill Browder event

In an era of rising autocracy, Bill Browder, the bestselling author of Red Notice and Freezing Order, brings his unparalleled expertise to the forefront. Join the Program on Capitalism and Democracy for a discussion on how business leaders can safeguard democratic principles while navigating increasingly challenging political landscapes. 

Browder's firsthand experiences combating corruption in Russia and beyond offer valuable lessons for today's global business environment. His story exemplifies how business leaders can leverage their influence to shape policy, champion justice, and uphold democratic ideals—even when confronted with grave personal and professional risks.

This event is co-sponsored by the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) at the Graduate School of Business and the Program on Capitalism and Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sir William (Bill) Browder KCMG was once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia until being declared “a threat to national security” in 2005 for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2008, Bill’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials stealing US $230 million of state taxes and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial, and systematically tortured.

Sergei Magnitsky died in prison on November 16, 2009. Ever since, Sir William has led the Global Magnitsky Campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials, introducing the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012, & the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act 2016. Which has since been adopted by 11 countries, including the U.S., UK, Canada, and New Zealand.

For his exceptional service to the UK abroad and internationally, in recognition of his significant and sustained contribution to human rights and anti-corruption, he was appointed by King Charles in the 2024 Birthday Honours List a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG).

Rachel Hersh, MBA '25

In-person: GSB Knight Management Center, C102 (657 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford)
Online: Via Zoom

Bill Browder
Lectures
Date Label

Valentin Bolotnyy Named to California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors

Authors
News Type
News
Date
Hero Image
Valentin Bolotnyy
All News button
1
Subtitle

Bolotnyy, an economist, affiliated scholar with CDDRL's Deliberative Democracy Lab, and Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover Institution, has joined California governor Gavin Newsom’s Council of Economic Advisors. His appointment became effective on August 22, 2024.

Date Label

Trading stocks builds financial confidence and compresses the gender gap

Paragraphs

Many studies document low rates of financial literacy and suboptimal levels of participation in financial markets. These issues are particularly acute among women. Does this reflect a self-reinforcing trap? If so, can a nudge to participate in financial markets generate knowledge, confidence, and further increase informed participation? We conduct a large field experiment that enables and incentivizes working-age men and women—a challenging group to reach with standard financial training programs—to trade stocks for four to seven weeks. We provide no additional educational content. We find that trading significantly improves financial confidence, as reflected in stock market participation, objective and subjective measures of financial knowledge, and risk tolerance. These effects are especially strong among women. Participants also become more self-reliant and consult others less when making financial decisions.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
The Economic Journal
Authors
Saumitra Jha

Avinash Thakkar

0
CDDRL Honors Student, 2024-25
avinash_jatin_thakkar.jpg

Major: Economics and Philosophy
Minor: Mathematical and Computational Science
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Thesis Advisor: Colleen Honigsberg

Tentative Thesis Title: Post-NSMIA: An Analysis of SEC Regulatory Enforcement and Priorities after 1996

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I aspire to contribute to making government work better by helping craft and enforce policies that more effectively safeguard public interest. To that end, I’d like to pursue a legal education and ultimately practice within government.

A fun fact about yourself: An avid gardener, I’ve grown more than roughly 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables in my home garden, and I’m always on the lookout for more opportunities to learn gardening chops!

Hide publication sections
Off
Date Label

Keeping Up Appearances: An Experimental Investigation of Relative Rank Signaling

Paragraphs

We investigate the potential welfare cost of relative rank considerations using a series of vignettes and lab-in-the-field experiments with over 2,000 individuals in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. We show that: (1) individuals judged to be of a lower rank are perceived as more likely to be sidelined from beneficial opportunities in many aspects of life; and (2) in response, individuals distort their appearance and consumption choices in order to appear of higher rank. These effects are strong and economically significant. As predicted by a simple signaling model, the distortion is larger for individuals with low (but not too low) socio-economic status.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Working Papers
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
CEPR Press
Authors
Pascaline Dupas
Marcel Fafchamps
Number
CEPR Discussion Paper No. 19092

Stanford Launches New Program on Capitalism and Democracy

Authors
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

On April 1, Stanford University formally launched a new Program on Capitalism and Democracy (CAD), a collaboration between the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) under the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).

The program was unveiled by Jon Levin, the recently appointed incoming President of Stanford University who currently serves as Dean of the Graduate School of Business, alongside Kathryn Stoner, the Mosbacher Director of CDDRL. In his remarks, Dean Levin highlighted that CAD will "be centered exactly at the intersection of business decision-making, policymaking, and the foundations of democratic institutions." He commended the work of CASI and its founder, Anat Admati, for rigorously pursuing research on "inconvenient issues that we have often chosen to avoid or ignore" related to the role of corporations in society.

Kathryn Stoner further elaborated that "the program on Capitalism and Democracy will explore the complex interactions between democratic institutions, markets, and private sector participants." She indicated the initiative will examine a broad range of topics, noting that "sometimes corporations are causes for good and sometimes corporations may undermine the resilience and quality of democracy."

To mark the launch, CAD convened a discussion involving Professor Larry Diamond, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at FSI, Anat Admati, Professor of Finance and Economics at the GSB, and Global Witness Co-Founder Patrick Alley. Together, they focused on how the dynamics of capitalism don’t always align well with the principles of democracy. In their remarks, they addressed critical concerns such as the erosion of global democratic norms, a lack of good governance, rampant corruption, and “predatory capitalism.” They offered their insights into the challenges involved when both economic and political frameworks are of first-order importance but must be addressed in an environment of declining trust in institutions.

Admati opened by rejecting “false dichotomies” that frame the issues as stark choices between “capitalism and socialism” or “free markets and regulation.” She observed that capitalism can be thought of as “a set of markets that have institutions that are private sector based” but emphasized that “the private sector needs the government to protect its rights and to enforce its contracts. When you have markets at scale with people who don't know each other, you need institutions. You need contracts and contract enforcement.”

Larry Diamond, who has done extensive research on democratic trends and conditions around the world, brought up the paradox of the “resource curse,” the phenomenon by which developing nations with valuable natural resources often experience declines in democratic institutions as the proceeds from selling the resources get caught up in webs of corruption rather than being justly distributed for the benefit of the wider population. He claimed that “corruption and kleptocracy are at the core of underdevelopment in the world.”

Patrick Alley’s experiences at Global Witness made him very aware of corrupt politicians taking bribes from multinational oil companies. He recounted how “the politician takes money, and now their allegiance is inevitably shifting away from the electorate to their new money suppliers… so they'll start building a heavy mob around them, put big walls on the palace … and retreat into that. They don't want to lose the next election because this is going very nicely for them.” Alley summed up the cycle of corruption and concluded that “the democratic process is going to be screwed from within -- and you end up with autocracy.”

The discussion turned to exposing the role of enablers play in the persistence of systemic corruption. Enablers of corruption are not those who directly participate in illicit activities but rather are members of a “pinstripe army” (in Alley’s parlance) composed of platoons of bankers, lawyers, and accountants in global financial centers who facilitate illicit flows of money around the world. He observed that “corruption is a global industry.”

Acknowledging that corporations can be instrumental in driving economic prosperity and innovation, Admati reflected on her experience exposing the inadequacy of laws and regulatory tools that should place limits on the “pinstripe army,” She drew a sharp distinction between the private sector as “the engine of growth and the engine of innovation” and “financialized capitalism … the capitalism that is undermining democracy, the type we want to push back against. Once democracy asserts itself properly then we will be able to get the gains of capitalism.”

Diamond closed the conference by endorsing “individual enterprise and initiative—honestly earned, transparently conducted, rule-of-law-minded, with concern for the community. It's predatory capitalism that runs amok and breaks free of transparency and democratic regulation, that threatens fairness, human well-being, and democracy itself.”

CAD will be led by Prof. Anat Admati, with the support of Prof. Larry Diamond, Dr. Didi Kuo, Center Fellow at FSI, and Dr. Francis Fukuyama, Oliver Nomellini Senior Fellow at FSI.

Read More

Program on Capitalism and Democracy logo on white bar over crowd of people with transparent overlay of global currencies
News

Examining the Dynamics of Corporate Power: CDDRL Launches New Program on Capitalism and Democracy

Led by Professor Anat Admati, the program explores how capitalism interacts with democratic institutions and how a better balance between them might be achieved.
Examining the Dynamics of Corporate Power: CDDRL Launches New Program on Capitalism and Democracy
Anat Admati
News

How Banking Undermines Democracy

In a recent CDDRL research seminar, Anat Admati shared findings from her research on how banking practices can undermine democracy, which are highlighted in the new and expanded edition of her book, "The Bankers’ New Clothes: What is Wrong with Banking and What to Do About It" (Princeton University Press, 2024).
How Banking Undermines Democracy
Hero Image
Larry Diamond, Patrick Alley, and Anat Admati
Patrick Alley (center) speaks on a panel with Larry Diamond (L) and Anat Admati (R) to launch the new Program on Capitalism and Democracy.
Saul Bromberger
All News button
1
Subtitle

The Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at FSI collaborate to address democratic recession.

Subscribe to Economic Affairs