Mortgaging Development: The World Bank and the Globalisation of Housing Finance

Through a newly-created dataset, Liam demonstrates that from the 1990s the major focus of the World Bank’s housing sector engagements has been the establishment and deepening of mortgage markets. Unfortunately, given that the majority of developing country populations remain frozen out of formal financial systems, the direct benefits from these interventions have bypassed the lower-income populations that the World Bank is mandated to assist. In the perennial balancing act between being ‘bank-like’ and being a development agency, the organisation has slipped notably toward the former in its housing sector interventions. This contrasts markedly with the Bank’s earlier operations in the area, which aimed to directly generate housing improvements for low-income groups by supporting interventions from national housing agencies.

Join Liam to discuss his research into this area.

Please contact Liam in advance if you wish to join this event (liam.clegg@york.ac.uk).