Swedish House of Finance

Swedish House of Finance

Join the Swedish House of Finance and guests from academia and finance for conversations about the ideas shaping markets, policy, and financial research. The Swedish House of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics is Sweden's national research center for financial economics.

  1. Central Questions EP 2: Are Giant Companies Rewriting Capitalism? Yueran Ma on Adam Smith, AI, and the Future of Firms

    6d ago

    Central Questions EP 2: Are Giant Companies Rewriting Capitalism? Yueran Ma on Adam Smith, AI, and the Future of Firms

    Two hundred and fifty years after Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, the economy looks very different from the world he described. Firms are bigger. Production is more centralized. AI and automation are changing what companies can do at scale. And yet markets still matter, perhaps more than ever, in deciding which firms rise, which fall, and how innovation spreads. In this episode of Central Questions, Stefan Ingves speaks with Yueran Ma, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, about the rise of large corporations, the changing role of capital and labor, and what Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Hayek can still teach us about today’s economy. They discuss why the largest firms now account for a growing share of output and assets, why employment has not concentrated in the same way, what AI could mean for productivity and inequality, and why financial markets may be crucial for spreading the gains from capital more broadly. Guest: Yueran Ma, Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Host: Stefan Ingves, former Governor of the Riksbank and Senior Fellow at Swedish House of Finance Topics: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Yueran Ma, Stefan Ingves, Central Questions, Swedish House of Finance, large firms, corporations, AI, automation, capital deepening, productivity, corporate finance, economic growth, financial markets, capitalism, Karl Marx, Hayek, visible hand, invisible hand, firm concentration, monetary policy, innovation, Chicago Booth

    54 min
  2. Central Questions EP 1: Financial Literacy Isn't the Issue. The Advice Industry Could Be.

    May 11

    Central Questions EP 1: Financial Literacy Isn't the Issue. The Advice Industry Could Be.

    In this episode of Central Questions, former RiksbankGovernor Stefan Ingves speaks with SHoF’s Paolo Sodini about the hidden logic behind how households build—and lose—wealth. They cover household finance, investing mistakes, diversification, mortgage risk, financial literacy, andwealth inequality. (0:29) Sweden’s Financial Crisis & Household Debt (2:16) Swedish Data & the Rise of Household Finance (4:48) The 2 Types of Financial Risk08:19 How Households Should Build Financial Buffers (10:49) Fixed vs Variable Mortgage Rates (14:23) Why Financial Literacy Matters (18:24) The Biggest Investing Mistakes People Make (19:33) Why Expensive Mutual Funds Often Fail (21:48) Why Financial Literacy Should Start Early (24:48) Why Financial Products Are Too Complicated (26:43) What Swedish Data Reveals About Wealth (27:50) Why Wealth Inequality Is Rising (29:24) Why Rich Investors Keep Gambling (30:44) Real Estate & Middle-Class Wealth Building (33:50) Skill vs Luck in Investing (35:07) “Too Good To Be True” Investments (36:37) Equality vs Entrepreneurship (37:53) Why Rich Families Stay Rich (40:04) Sweden’s Housing Market Problem (40:41) Why Wealth Data Matters (44:37) How Many Mutual Funds Do You Really Need? (45:15) Why Financial Advice Needs Regulation (47:56) Final Advice on Investing & Wealth Guest: Paolo Sodini, Researcher at the Swedish Houseof Finance and Professor of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics Host: Stefan Ingves, former Governor of the Riksbank and Senior Fellowat Swedish House of Finance Topics: household finance, investing, personal finance,financial literacy, wealth inequality, diversification, mortgages, mutual funds, economics

    49 min

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Join the Swedish House of Finance and guests from academia and finance for conversations about the ideas shaping markets, policy, and financial research. The Swedish House of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics is Sweden's national research center for financial economics.

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