Location of international financial activities: theoretical finding and recent trends

There has been a growing interest in international financial centres (IFCs) in recent years. Nevertheless, discussion usually focuses on the respective costs and advantages of the different centres. This papers offers theoretical insights on the geography of international financial activities and the function of IFCs. We refer to various models of competition between markets and economic geography and compare their results with recent developments in the international financial environment. Two trends are highlighted : first, the weakening of traditional barriers to concentration of capital markets and greater pressures on geographical concentration of financial activities in largest centres ; and second, incentives to separate geographically the production of international financial activities to exploit specific advantages of the various sites. JEL Classification : G10, R12Choppin-Ansidei Julie. Location of international financial activities: theoretical finding and recent trends. In: Revue d'économie financière (English ed.), n°57, 2000. What future for financial centres ? pp. 15-28