| Assets | Liabilities |
|---|---|
| Fixed capital | Debt: Loans |
| Financial assets: Shares | Debt: Bonds |
| Financial assets: Bonds | Net worth |
Intro to financial data
Political economy of finance in Europe: Week 3
Benjamin Braun
Balance sheets
Agenda
Balance sheets
Financial accounts
Two ways to get oriented
Where to find financial data
T-accounts
Network of interlocking balance sheets
Source: Braun and Koddenbrock (2022)
Balance sheet of a bank
Source: BNP Paribas, latest financial statement
Balance sheet of a bank
Source: BNP Paribas, latest financial statement
Financial accounts
Agenda
Balance sheets
Financial accounts
Two ways to get oriented
Where to find financial data
Four sectors in the national accounts
| PUBLIC | PRIVATE | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | Non-financial corporations | Financial corporations | Households |
Four sectors: sub-categories
| Government | Non-financial corporations | Financial corporations | Households |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central government | Listed corporations | Banks | |
| Central banks | Unlisted corporations | Investment funds | |
| Insurers | |||
| Pension funds |
Four sectors: Types of liabilities
| Government | Financial corporations | Non- financial corporations | Households |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government | Banks | Listed corporations | Households |
| Sovereign bonds | Equity | Listed equity | Debt |
| Non-tradeable debt | Debt: Deposits and bonds | Debt: Loans and bonds | |
| Central bank | Investment funds | Unlisted corporations | |
| Currency | Fund shares | Unlisted equity | |
| Reserves | Debt: Loans | ||
| Insurance and pension funds | |||
| Insurance, pension, and guarantee schemes |
Full list of financial instruments
- Monetary gold and special drawing rights
- Currency and deposits
- Debt securities
- Loans
- Equity and investment fund shares
- Insurance, pension, and standardized guarantee schemes
- Financial derivatives and employee stock options
- Other accounts receivable or payable
Two ways to get oriented
Agenda
Balance sheets
Financial accounts
Two ways to get oriented
Where to find financial data
Option 1: Balance of Payments Manual, 6th edition. 
Option 2: IIP database of the IMF
Full system of national accounts
Source: OECD (2017).
Where to find financial data
Agenda
Balance sheets
Financial accounts
Two ways to get oriented
Where to find financial data
DBnomics
- A uniquely helpful platform for official economic data
- Standardized access point to statistical agencies, central banks, and international orgs
- The R package
rdbnomicsmakes querying their API easy; downloading data is efficient and reproducible - This vignette introduces the various options to download data via
rdbnomics - For an introduction, see my separate set of teaching slides
More data sources
My collection of hand-picked sources for political economy students.
References
Braun, Benjamin, and Kai Koddenbrock. 2022. “The Three Phases of Financial Power: Leverage, Infrastructure, and Enforcement.” In. London: Routledge. https://benjaminbraun.org/assets/pubs/braun-koddenbrock_three-phases.pdf.
OECD. 2017. Understanding Financial Accounts. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/publication/9789264281288-en.
LSE | EU469 | Week 3
Intro to financial data Political economy of finance in Europe: Week 3 Benjamin Braun