Intro to financial data

Political economy of finance in Europe: Week 3

Benjamin Braun

Balance sheets

Agenda

  1. Balance sheets

  2. Financial accounts

  3. Two ways to get oriented

  4. Where to find financial data

T-accounts

Assets Liabilities
Fixed capital Debt: Loans
Financial assets: Shares Debt: Bonds
Financial assets: Bonds Net worth

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

  1. Balance sheets

  2. Financial accounts

  3. Two ways to get oriented

  4. Where to find financial data

Four sectors in the national accounts

PUBLIC PRIVATE ...3 ...4
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

  1. Balance sheets

  2. Financial accounts

  3. Two ways to get oriented

  4. 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

  1. Balance sheets

  2. Financial accounts

  3. Two ways to get oriented

  4. 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 rdbnomics makes 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.